Nigeria police say no personnel absconded from training facility in N’east
By The Nigerian police force on Wednesday denied media reports that 167 of its personnel absconded from a training facility in the North-east following information that they would be deployed to battle against Boko Haram insurgents.
In a statement, Jimoh Moshood, Force Public Relations Officer, list of the said absconded officers was fake attempted to discredit efforts of the Force in the fight against insurgency in the North-east.
His statement reads; “The attention of the Nigeria Police Force has been drawn to a story by Premium Times Online media, captioned ‘167 Police Officers Abscond from Deployment against Boko Haram (Full List)’.
“The Force wishes to categorically state that the story is untrue, absolute falsehood and a deliberate attempt to cast aspersions on the efforts of the Nigeria Police Force in the ongoing fight against the Boko Haram insurgency.
“The insinuation in some quarters and as reported in the story that 167 out the 2,000 additional police officers recently deployed by the IGP absconded is not correct and should be disregarded by members of the public. These 2,000 police personnel are to complement the efforts of the military to add new impetus to the fight against the decimated Boko Haram insurgency.
“This story was investigated and it was found out not to be correct, there is no reason whatsoever that police personnel deployed for the operations in the North-east would abscond. The Police Mobile Force (PMF) personnel have been engaged actively in the front line along with the military in the fight against Boko Haram terrorist group since the inception of the insurgency,” part of the statement read.
“While stating that the 2,000 police officers recently deployed are in addition to several thousands of police personnel already engaged in the fight against insurgency with the military in the North-east, Moshood maintained that the list of 167 names attached to the story is fake as the officers mentioned are on ground in the North-east.
Onyinye Nwachukwu, Abuja