Policemen May Undergo Psychiatric Test

Nigeria’s Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase, has hinted that those coming into the Force may be subjected to a psychiatric test. He also added that this may apply to serving officers too.

Arase made this disclosure on Tuesday at the Nigeria Police Force Health Policy Revalidation meeting in Abuja.

According to the police chief, this initiative became necessary following incidents of indiscriminate use of firearms by some of his men.

In his words, “The Police should be concerned about the mental health of officers.”

He pointed out that inadequate health workers, poor funding, infrastructure deficit and management deficiencies had been some of the challenges inhibiting the force’s medical unit, maintaining that in order to tackle these, it was expedient to develop a health policy for the Force.

“You all have been invited here today to review the Draft Health Policy for the Nigeria Police Force,” said the IG.

Speaking at the event, the Minister of Health, Prof Isaac Adewole, promised that, “We will assist in the implementation, we will ensure it happens.”

Also speaking, Registrar of the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria, MDCN, Dr Abdulmumini Ibrahim, said the policy was long overdue. He also promised that his council would help the police to build the capacity to handle the facility.

Recall that Arase had advised Divisional Police Officers, DPOs, to always determine the mental awareness of officers before assigning firearms to them to curtail incidents of accidental discharge.