President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Wednesday declared a nationwide security emergency, directing security agencies to expand their workforce to confront worsening insecurity across the country.
A statement from the State House said the president ordered the police to recruit an additional 20,000 personnel, raising the total number of new intakes approved so far to 50,000.
Tinubu also authorised the use of National Youth Service Corps camps as temporary training centres to speed up the recruitment and deployment process.
The move comes amid growing concerns over kidnappings, bandit attacks and violent crimes in several states.
Security experts have repeatedly warned that the country’s security architecture is overstretched, with the police-to-citizen ratio falling below international standards.
The fresh directive is expected to boost manpower and improve response capacity once the new officers are deployed nationwide.