The Police College, Kaduna says it has discharged 234 recruits for failure to meet the basic entry requirements of the institution.
Commandant of the college, Mr Sunusi Rufai, a Commissioner of Police, disclosed this while addressing newsmen in Kaduna on Wednesday.
Rufai said the college had discovered that some of the students were “lepers; some had sight problems’’, while others had no basic entry requirements for the 15-month training.
He said that 234 of the 5,000 recruits had been expelled for being lepers, partially blind, falsification of credentials and several inimical acts, which contravened police training requirements.
“Someone that you will train to become a police officer and to trust with gun you caught him with knife stabbing his fellow trainees; it shows he is not fit to be a police man.
“We found some of them stealing their fellow trainees' luggage and we caught them but we did not take them to court. We just allowed them to go,’’ he said.
He said some of recruits absconded and returned and “we said no, training school is not like conventional university.
“Some of them were caught smoking Indian hemp, while some others were found too short in terms of heights. ’’
He said that their expulsion was in accordance with Section 116 of the Police Act and Regulations, which empowered a commandant to discharge unfit trainees.
Rufai said that a committee had been set up to investigate officials, who had handled their recruitment.
“We are investigating those behind this and our committee is working and some of them will lose their jobs.
?“We say no to illegalities in police and in the ongoing reforms; these people should be flushed out.
“Let us get those who are qualified so that we will have a better police force. There is nothing surprising in our action; it is a new directive of the new IGP to reposition the police. ’’