By Jude Opara, Abuja

The exploits of officers and men of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) in sports over the years did not come by chance but because of a careful plan laid down by the leadership of successive administrations of the body right from the colonial era.

Chief Sports Officer of the Force, Commissioner Sani Mohammed who disclosed this to journalists in Abuja yesterday said the NPF has in addition,  place the welfare of its officers and men who have taken to sports as a priority.

“From 1946, to be precise, when we started institutional sports at Obalende, that was the first Nigerian police organized sports competition among the officers and men, the Europeans integrated sports as part of police work in line with the concept of sound mind in a sound body, physical fitness and mental alertness. We did not break the tradition as every succeeding Inspector General of Police (IGP) maintained the tempo unless when there was a national emergency.

“What we do, which others may not be doing, is that we don’t go and shop for already made champions. We go to secondary schools to get our athletes, send them to areas peculiar to the sport they do. For instance our long distance runners from the last recruitment we had were posted to Taraba and specifically to Mambila side just to be familiar with the terrain and the short distance runners and the jumps, we sent to the Niger Delta region and South West because that is the capital of such sports.”

Mohammed who is also the Commissioner of Police in Nasarawa State further revealed that the sportsmen in the force also carry out general duties but while doing that they always have a timetable of when to do their conditioning to always remain physically fit and ready to discharge their duties diligently.