Federal government to employ NPower beneficiaries as Community Police Officers

The National Economic Council (NEC) on Thursday reaffirmed its planned arrangement to engage N-Power beneficiaries and National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) members in community policing.

This was made known in a statement from the office of the Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo on Thursday night.


According to the release, the governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi, presented an update on the NEC ad-hoc committee set up on security and policing.

Fayemi said the Inspector General of Police (IGP) has initiated the commencement of community policing.

”The Inspector General of Police (IGP) has initiated the commencement of community policing and there is a plan to consider using N-Power beneficiaries and youth corpers as police officers in their local government areas,” the information reads.

Also, the statement indicated that a full report will be given in the next NEC meeting.

While addressing them, President Muhammadu Buhari urged the council to pay special attention to security, education, agriculture and health.

He said his administration was committed to protecting Nigeria’s territory and urged the governors to find ways of increasing their state’s internal revenue.

The Federal Government and the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) had in July proposed to convert NYSC members and beneficiaries of the N-Power scheme to beef up the manpower needs of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF).

The N-Power volunteers and the Corps members , if the policy is approved, are to be added to the extra 10,000 additional hands being recruited by the police.

Osinbajo presided over NEC meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on Thursday.

The country’s number two citizen, who chairs the NEC, is the head of Nigeria’s Economic Management team.

The meeting – held monthly – comes on the heels of the inauguration of new ministers by President Buhari on Wednesday.

The NPower programme was established by the federal hovernment of Nigeria with the aim of fostering productivity through skill development and valuable knowledge sharing and acquisition for economic growth and social development.