The Director, Directorate of Peacekeeping at the Force Headquarters, ACP Lawan Jimeta, has said that UN standards are being strictly followed in selecting policemen for peacekeeping operations.

Jimeta made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Abuja.

He said that in spite of the pressure from different quarters, the directorate had ensured that the best were selected without bias for deployment for the operations.

“We have a standard, UN standards and we strictly follow them,“he said.

He said that the directorate was focused in terms of standard in spite of the challenges of large turnout of officers for training and interference from members of the public.

The director said that the closing of some UN missions had reduced the number of officers that could be deployed for peacekeeping operations.

“We used to have five UN missions but they have been reduced to three – Mali, Liberia and Somalia,“he said.

He said that ECOWAS had one but it was closed because of the challenges in the sub region.

Jimeta attributed the large number of officers during training to the increment in the period of operation from six months to one year.

He explained that this had also reduced the frequency at which officers could be deployed for peacekeeping operations.

Jimeta said that many Nigerian Peace Keepers had been given award for their outstanding performances during UN peacekeeping operations.

He said that 140 and 120 policemen were deployed in January to Somalia and Liberia, respectively, for peace keeping operations.

He advised officers to shun desperation as this could lead to falling into the hands of fraudsters.

Jimeta commended the Inspector-General of Police, Mr Solomon Arase, for his unflinching support to the directorate in carrying out its duty.