Policemen To Undergo Drug Abuse Test- Solomon Arase

The Inspector-General of Police, Mr Solomon Arase, has said policemen will undergo snap urine tests to ascertain signs of drug abuse before they can be issued firearms.Arase spoke at the launch of

drug testing kits and the campaign against the sudden death of officers in Abuja yesterday.The programme was organised by the Police in collaboration with the Hypertension and Diabetes
Awareness Foundation.He said besides denying officers, who failed the test, access to firearms, the force would wean them from drugs or other psychological problems.Arase noted that the killing of Nigerians from misapplication of firearms by policemen made the public to cast aspersions on the police.“After an in-depth study, my team and I have found out that some of these fatal cases could be due to mishandling of firearms by police officers, who are psychologically unfit to handle firearms at that time.“We have, therefore, decided that the medical assessment of persons we recruit into the Police will include a psychological assessment“, he said.He said some of these psychological problems could also have resulted from drug abuse by a few of the officers.