President Bola Tinubu has approved the immediate recruitment of 28,000 additional soldiers and 50,000 police officers as part of aggressive measures to bolster Nigeria’s security architecture and curb nationwide criminality.
The approval forms a core component of the administration’s proposed Five-Year Strategic Defence Operations Plan, designed to improve military effectiveness, expand operational capacity, and strengthen responses to terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, and other violent crimes.
The development was disclosed in a statement issued on Sunday by Dele Alake, spokesperson for the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Council.
According to the statement, the President’s decision to scale up military manpower is aimed at establishing a more formidable boots-on-the-ground presence to decisively confront security threats.
“To further the manpower expansion drive, President Tinubu also approved recruiting an additional 28,000 soldiers to strengthen the military’s presence on the ground and enhance its operational effectiveness,” the statement read.
It added that the President equally sanctioned the recruitment of 50,000 additional police officers “as part of broader efforts to reinforce internal security, improve policing capacity, and strengthen the country’s response to criminal activities.”
Restructuring and Expansion of Military Infrastructure
Beyond personnel recruitment, the campaign council disclosed that President Tinubu has created four new Army divisions and restructured existing military formations to widen operational coverage and quicken responses to security emergencies.
The administration has also approved the establishment of two new Army depots located in Osogbo, Osun State, and Amasiri-Edda, Ebonyi State, aimed at boosting military training capacity and expediting soldier recruitment.
“Each depot can accommodate 6,000 recruits at a time, bringing their combined training capacity to 12,000 soldiers,” the statement noted, adding that 5,210 recruits are already undergoing training at the Osogbo facility.
The council also highlighted massive investments in military welfare and infrastructure, citing the ongoing construction of a 700-unit military barracks project in Ikere-Ekiti, Ekiti State.
Scorecard on Insurgency
Touting the administration’s security scorecard, the APC PCC claimed that sustained military operations across the country have resulted in the elimination of more than 15,000 Boko Haram terrorists and bandits over the past three years.
Furthermore, the council stated that over 130,000 Boko Haram fighters and their family members have laid down their arms and surrendered through *Operation Safe Corridor*, the Federal Government’s rehabilitation and deradicalization program for repentant insurgents.
The council explained that the proposed Five-Year Strategic Defence Operations Plan provides a robust, long-term framework to align defence priorities, capability development, and expenditure with Nigeria’s evolving security landscape.
“The initiative is a major component of President Tinubu’s determination to reposition the nation’s security architecture toward a more coordinated, intelligence-led, technology-enabled, and prevention-oriented system capable of addressing terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, and other forms of criminality,” the statement concluded.
The campaign council maintained that a synergy of sustained kinetic operations, robust manpower, modern technology, and non-kinetic interventions remains the definitive key to restoring permanent peace across the country.
