•Where Lives Of Staff, Family Members Are Endangered
•Snakes, Other Reptiles On The Prowl
•Last recruits in 2022 lived, trained under rejection
•Host community alleges political compromise
By ERIC MOORE
THE Police Training School (PTS), Nonwa, in Tai Local Government Area of Rivers State, is a “disaster”. That was how the Executive Secretary of Nigeria Police Trust Fund (NPTF), Mohammed Sheidu, simply described the place during his recent visit to the school that has lasted for about four decades.
Pentoks News gathered that the construction of the school started in 1982 and the first batch of recruits passed out about 1985.
According to an insider, the first and second batches of policemen and women that passed through the PTS have retired from active service.
But, currently, the pioneer training institution in the South-South for police and other paramilitary agencies, is abandoned and the facilities irredeemable.
Summarily, the school “no longer exists”, though some police personnel and their family members live there, because the Commandant in charge of it has refused to accept postings of recruits to the area.
The reason for the commandant’s refusal, it was gathered, was because the school is not habitable; and not in a condition where people that would serve the society should pass through.
The PTS, Nonwa, was to serve Bayelsa and Rivers State. But, because the school lacks light, water, road, accommodation,
clinic, in fact, virtually all basic amenities, recruits meant for the two states , in the last two years, were sent to PTS, Odukpani in Cross River State.
When monitored the deplorable state of the school, it was observed that police officers living in the quarters, use buckets and plastic drums to shield their rooms from getting flooded from leaking roofs when it rains.
An anonymous police personnel told the reporter that a police man or woman posted to the school would wonder what offence he or she has committed to deserve such a punishment.
The source said he passed through the PTS, Nonwa, in 1991, and he has put in 30 years of service, approaching his retirement.
He expressed: “I am approaching my retirement. I graduated here as a recruit in 1991. No police personnel or from any other agency who passed through this school, will feel happy the way the training school is today.
“If you stand at the road and look inside, nobody would believe that a human being would be inside this bushy environment.
“We lack security here because the entire area is too porous. There is no road, we do not have water, light. There is nothing to motivate any person to stay or live in this kind of atmosphere.”
He added: “The school is not fenced. There is no operational vehicle. If there is an emergency at any time, there would not be any response to rescue the situation.
“For instance, look at the Quarter Guard; if any thing is happening to the officer on duty over there, there is no way he or she can communicate to the staff inside. If there is any security threat within this environment, nobody would know. Even if you, there is nothing anyone can do. It is as bad as that.
“I won’t be wrong if I say that any Police personnel sent here (PTS) came on punishment. Can you sincerely tell me that if you came on visit and saw that you brother, sister or child was posted here, that you would be happy?
“I know that if I tell you to go round area this environment and look at buildings, you will refuse because of fear of snakes and other reptiles. But, this is where some of us and our family members live. This PTS needs divine intervention.”
Another insider, who craved to remain anonymous, said all the efforts (appeals) of the commandant to Police high authority to rescue the training school has not yielded any result.
According to the source, about five different committees and agencies (including National Assembly and and an intervention agency) have visited the PTS, Nonwa. But, all the visits had not produced any result.
The source expressed: “Sometimes, I pity the Commandant of this training. How can you send somebody to this kind of place? Is it to live or die?
“This man (referring to the commandant) has made several requests to draw the attention of Police high authority in Abuja to help him to make the PTS good for new recruits. But, all to no avail.
“As a commandant of the school, he is expected to be here 24 hours to oversee the training of recruits and their well-being, as well as staff members and management of the school. Still, he is always around. That is why I said earlier that I pity him.
“If you go to the administrative block, most of the offices are leaking. If rain is falling, you shift your seat or relocate to any place better.
“Look at where an officer is living with his family members, exposing us to life-threatening conditions. What is our offence? Can you move about here at night no matter what is happening? Nobody can try.
“Go to all the buildings and their rooms in this premises and confirm what I am saying, whether I am lying or saying the truth.”
The source told Pentoks News that why the staffers seem helpless when they were deployed to the place is because no officer would want to be disengaged abruptly from service and lose his or her benefits after many years of service.
He said: “I passed through this school and I have put in 25 years in service. When we were here 25 years ago, it was lively and busy. But, it is unimaginable that this is the same school that has produced many retired and serving senior police officers and others from paramilitary agencies.
“When I was deployed to this place few years ago, honestly, I was happy. But, there was nothing I could do. I could not reject the deployment because I wouldn’t want them the see my action as insubordination. If I’m discharged before my retirement, I’m the one losing. That is why no officer would want to reject his or her posting here. We don’t have choice.”
Similarly, another anonymous source said there is nothing to motivate any policeman or woman at the PTS, Nonwa.
The source continued that as a security personnel, moving from the PTS to community without any operational vehicle is exposing them to risk.
He said: “We pay bike man (motorcyclist) N500 from here to community and N500 back. Sometimes, you don’t see any bike. You have to trek down. It is very risky.
“Most times, we don’t communicate with our loved ones outside. If we want to charge our phone batteries, we go to the community. And if your battery runs down, there is nothing you can do until the next time you would go to the community.
“So, any time you go to the community or town, you make sure that you finish all your business before returning to the school. In fact, all round us here are challenges. We are dying here and federal government should close down the school than posting human beings here.
“When I was posted to here four years ago, I gathered that the PTS was a pioneer training school for people in South-South and South East. It is quite unfortunate that a once pioneer training school, is now a story of old.”
It was gathered that the decay of the facilities and the reason new police recruits have not been posted to the school after the last batch in 2022, propelled the Executive Secretary of the Nigeria Police Trust Fund (NPTF), to visit the PTS.
It was a disheartening moment for the executive secretary and his entourage as they were conducted round the bush housing the school.
The NPTF executive secretary who was speechless at the state of the school, noted that the environment is not conducive for training and wondered why the Police Training School in a State like Rivers State, would still have a campus like that.
During the visit, the Executive Secretary of the NPTF, Mohammed Sheidu, expressed shock at the decay and described the centre as a disaster.
He led top management team of the agency alongside the House of Representatives Committee on Police Affairs to visit the area to assess the condition of the school.
Sheidu said federal government should declare an emergency on the training school, expressing concerns about the uninhabitable structures and environment of the place.
He assured that urgent steps would be taken to rehabilitate the institution, adding that allowing the facilities to decay to such a sorry state would affect future postings of new recruits to Rivers State.
Sheidu expressed: “We came to check out the training facilities of the Nigeria Police Force Training School. We are going across the nation to check on facilities, medical and training facilities.
“And Rivers State from my surprise with the current recruitment that was going on in the Police was not training any officer. So, I said it was needful that we came here ourselves to see the state of affairs of what is happening in the training facilities.
“We are going to look in forward in what we can do. As an intervention agency, our work is to come into things like this and see how we can facilitate and bring it back into a shape that should be able to train officers and youths and engage more people in Police Force, especially in an area in the South-South.
“It is a disaster. It is very important that something that is an emergency (state of emergency) should be declare here in Rivers State, especially with the training facilities that we have come here to look at today.”
Similarly, the Chairman, House Committee on Police Affairs, House of Representatives, Makki Abubakar, has expressed concerns about the deplorable state of the training school.
He assured that meaningful and urgent steps would be taken by the House of Representatives to address the challenge.
However, the Commandant Police Training School, Nonwa, ACP Daniel Okere, explained to the team that for training to take place in the facility, the school needs to be fixed.
Okere who commended the executive secretary for the visit, noted that the last training that took place in the school was in 2022, still under the dilapidated buildings.
Meanwhile, Pentoks News gathered that the facility has more that 1,000 capacity; and when the school was existing, it boosted the economy of the Nonwa community, and Tai LGA in general, like the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) Permanent Orientation Camp in Nonwa-Gbam.
Community sources said the last
constabularies were in 2022. They sources said because of the risky and life-threatening environment, no natives would want to build residential house around the vicinity.
One of the natives, Mr. Barivule Ndene, said sending recruits to the place is like punishing them. He wondered what Police high authority would expect any recruit trained in such environment to turn out to be.
Ndene asked: “Imagine what a Police personnel trained in this kind of environment would turn out to be. He or she would be entering the society with a negative mindset, which is too dangerous for the society.
“In the 80s and 90s, the training school was vibrant and business was booming in our community. Some of our people planned to build houses to develop the community further.
“Some houses built some metres away from the school, when the training school had started losing its glory, have been vandalized by criminals.
“We suspect there is a serious political compromise at the top to make sure the training school does not exist. And they have succeeded in achieving that.”