Nigeria’s Police Service Commissions (PSC) on Friday rejected the offer by Germany to train at least 30,000 recruits of the Nigeria Police Force, insisting that the new recruits will be trained locally.
PSC chairman and former Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Musiliu Smith, said during a press briefing in Abuja that the German offer is not in the best interest of Nigeria Police as Nigeria and Germany are two different societies.
The German government had on Tuesday asked the Federal Government to release at least 30,000 Nigeria Police personnel for special training in Germany on how to manage protests among Nigerians without using weapons.
A high-level delegation from Germany, which visited the Chairman of the Police Service Commission (PSC), Musiliu Smith, specifically said it was willing to train the new crop of recruits into the Nigeria Police Force on best practices on street protest management.
The team, led by a retired Inspector-General of the German Federal Police, Matthias Seeger, had earlier visited Louis Eddet House, the Nigeria Police Force headquarters where they held meeting with with the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba.
Smith told journalists that it is important for Police personnel to undergo training locally so as to screen them when they are at the basic level of the force.
According to the PSC chairman, “we have to screen them. You know the German people were around. They had discussions with the government and some relevant organisations, the discussion is still on.
“The government there is willing to support good security in our country. And we’re also ready to encourage them. But definitely, the earliest or the basic set of personnel will still hold their training here.
“Gradually, if they have facilities, we need to go and see whatever facilities and whatever is there and the curriculum they are using because the two societies are different societies.
“We want to be sure that there are things we need to input into our systems that will help us.”