The Nigeria Police Force on Monday says 133,324 applicants shortlisted for recruitment into the force will undergo a compulsory psychiatric test.

President Muhammadu Buhari recently gave approval for the recruitment of 6,000 police constables to address the nation’s security challenges.

The Deputy Inspector-General of Police in charge of training, Emmanuel Inyang, made the disclosure at the launch of the exercise at Police Command in the FCT, Abuja, adding that the essence of the test was to ensure that the applicants were not on drugs.

He said that aside from the psychiatric test, applicants would also undergo a general medical test to ascertain their fitness for the job.

Mr Inyang added that the test would start with the screening of applicants’ documents to ensure that they were qualified.

He noted that after the screening of documents, applicants would also be subjected to aptitude test that would be conducted by JAMB.

He explained that the screening would be supervised by Zonal Assistant Inspector-Generals of police to ensure transparency.

Mr Inyang said the 774 local government areas of the country would be represented to ensure federal character in the process, saying, “we have representatives from Police Service Commission (PSC) and Federal Character Commission (FCC) to ensure that federal character was captured.”

He said the Force took these steps to ensure that the best were recruited and for effective service delivery to Nigerians.

PSC had announced that screening for the 133,324 shortlisted applicants would commence on May 7 in the 36 state police command headquarters and the Federal Capital Territory.

Kaduna State has the highest number of applicants with 6,962, while Lagos has the least with 1,013.

Katsina was second with 6,676, followed by Benue and Niger with 6,474 and 6,409, while Bayelsa has 1,097, Anambra has 1,117 and Ebonyi has 1,303 applicants.

1,265 applicants would also be screened in the FCT during the exercise, expected to end in early June.