#EndSARS: NEC recommends psychiatric test for police recruits

The National Economic Council, NEC, has recommended psychiatric examination for persons considered for recruitment into the Nigeria Police Force (NPF).

This is as the Council also appealed to those planning to stage a protest to mark the first anniversary of the #EndSARS protests to consider other lawful alternative means of engagement. 

Governor of Nasarawa State, Abdullahi Sule, who briefed State House correspondents after the meeting, said that the government has taken various actions to address the allegations of human rights violations made against the Nigerian police and other security agencies.

According to Governor Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa who briefed journalists after the NEC meeting on Friday, the recommendation of psychiatric test for new recruits followed the submission of the judicial panels of the enquiry on the EndSARS protests.

The NEC recommended that persons recruited into police and other arms-bearing security agencies “should undergo psychiatric evaluations and drug tests before enlistment and periodically.

“We also looked at the various personnel of agencies who are to look at the various rules of engagement in the discharge of their functions within the civilian populace. 

“While acknowledging the various initiatives introduced by the federal government to strengthen police accountability, through the police force commission, through sustained funding of budgetary allocations to the Nigerian police, we should also undertake a comprehensive assessment of all police stations across the country with a view to ensuring that they are fit for this purpose.”

NewsWireNGR reports that NEC is presided over by Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, and has the 36 state governors and Ministers in charge of the economy as well as the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, as members.