BIR/GP Recruitment - 350 Candidates Retained

The selection exercise ended over the weekend in Bamenda.Some 350 young men from the North West region have been selected into the Rapid Intervention Unit - BIR and the Presidential Guard-GP of the Cameroon military.

The selection exercise that rounded up over the weekend was the last face of the national recruitment exercise that has taken the military officers to the other nine regions of the country. According to the National Coordinator for 2014 BIR/ GP Recruitment, Colonel Bouba Dobekreo, they have retained the best. He said those selected will be taken to Yaoundé for the thorough medical checkup before the final training.

He said after the 20meter distance race whereby the candidate carried a load of 20kg, they did another race covering some 10km after which several teams of 15 candidates were assigned to carry one electric pole for a two hours period without it torching the ground. He said all this is to test their team spirit, resistance and brevity level. He was categorical when he mentioned that the BIR / GP recruitment is not for the weak but for those who are strong and can withstand the selection exercise. He said their key word all along has been transparency as no candidate can ever bribe his way through.

Saturday March 22 saw the candidates taking a written exercise as well as an oral test, according to Major Tjeck Didier chair person of the Written and Brainstorming committee, the written and oral exercise was to check the candidates knowledge about the country they were want to defend. He said it was also to evaluate their reading ability. He added that the results will be to reclassify them and not to disqualify them.