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The Nigeria Police Force will need almost N1tn to be efficient and
effective in the fight against rising insecurity in the country.
The leading internal security outfit is proposing a total sum of
N944,856,416,800 to carry out its operations across the country.
The Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, had on Tuesday said
apart from more personnel, the Force needed not less than 1,000 Armoured
Personnel Carriers, 250,000 assault rifles with corresponding
ammunition, to effectively police Nigeria.
The IG also said the country needed 2,000,000 tear gas canisters and
smoke grenades, 200,000 riot gunners and smoke pistols, 1,000 tracking
devices, and 774 operational drones, among others.
Adamu had made this known at a public hearing organised by the House of
Representatives Committee on Police Affairs, themed ‘Repositioning the
Nigeria Police for an Enhanced Service Delivery.’
The police boss, who was represented at the event by the Deputy
Inspector-General of Police (Operations), Abdulmajid Ali, stated that an
aggregation of reports by the various police reform committees under
the current democratic dispensation indicated that there were major
challenges inhibiting optimal police service delivery.
In the document presented to the committee, a copy of which our
correspondent obtained, the police listed the challenges as including
gross underfunding, which he said was occasioned by inadequate budgetary
appropriation and non-release of the limited appropriated funds.
An analysis of the document on Saturday showed that the police plan to
spend a total of about N944.9bn on helicopters, gunboats, patrol
vehicles, fuel, and monitoring and inspection.
A breakdown of the proposed expenses showed that they were in five categories.
Deployment of helicopters to the six geopolitical zones “for aerial
patrol against armed robbery, kidnapping, banditry, terrorism and sundry
operations” will cost N3,056,140,000.
The marine section of the NPF plans to spend a total of N21,660,000,000 on Police Combat Patrol Launch and armoured gunboats.
The police will also acquire operational vehicles, including pick-up vans, APCs, cameras and water canon with N696,816,800,000.
Monitoring and evaluation of commands and training institutions by the
Department of Research and Planning would cost N247,488,000.
A further breakdown of the N3,056,140,000 billed for the six aircraft
showed that they would conduct aerial patrol for six hours per day,
consuming 800 litres per hour, while the cost at N250 per litre would
amount to N2,592,000. Repairs and servicing, lubricants and spare parts
make up the total.
The N21,660,000,000 proposed for PCPL include the purchase of 15 units
of armoured gunboats (12M) at N230m each, 15 units of 14M at
N265,000,000 each and 10 units of M16 at N285,000,000 each. Other marine
vehicles and devices make up the total amount.
With N696,816,800,000 for operational vehicles, the police plan to
acquire 1,819 APCs at N150m each, 1,819 water cannons at N170m each,
1,915 patrol pick-up vans at N28.5m each, and vans with cameras at
N29.750m each.
The cost of fuel – both diesel and petrol – for vehicles would be
N194,451,100 per week, while the cost of maintaining them would be
N1,838,400,000. The vehicles are to consume 1,127,780 litres of fuel per
week.
These vehicles would be distributed across 267 area commands, 1,489
divisional headquarters, 37 state headquarters, 12 zonal headquarters
and four force headquarters. Each of these formations would get one of
each of the items. Out of the number, 10 APCs, 10 water cannons, 100
vans and 100 vans with cameras were to be reserved.
Meanwhile, the Police Service Commission has said 2,866 senior police
officers from the ranks of Assistant Superintendent of Police to the
Deputy Inspector-General of Police retired from service in 2019.
The PSC decried that “because of the serious insecurity situation in the
country, the Police Force continues to lose personnel almost on a daily
basis,” stating that “in view of the foregoing and some others
un-highlighted, it is crystal clear that the current strength and
funding of the Force is grossly inadequate to effectively secure our
country and her citizenry.”
Chairman of the PSC, Alhaji Musiliu Smith, a retired IGP, in his written
presentation to the House, a copy of which our correspondent obtained,
stated that the current strength of the NPF, put at about 350,000, “is
grossly inadequate to police our country.”
The PSC boss said, “For a start, urgent attention should be given to the
issue of increasing the strength of the Force to at least 500,000
within the next two years. This should cover enlistment of cadet ASPs,
Cadet Inspectors – general duty and specialist – and constables.
“As it has been done in the past, intensive initial training for cadet
officers can be shortened to nine months while that of recruit
constables can run for six months.
“If approval is given to conduct many of these courses yearly, it will
ensure regular increase in the strength of the Force even with the
annual retirement of due officers.”
Smith had on Tuesday decried inadequate police personnel, many of whom
he said had been deployed to protect public buildings and servants as
well as Very Important Persons.
“It is from the indicated police strength that personnel are deployed to
the Presidential Villa, National Assembly, Judiciary, top government
officials at the centre (Federal Government) and all the states,
prominent traditional rulers nationwide, foreign embassies, banks,
key/vulnerable points and all levels of police formations throughout the
country. No wonder, only skeletal police coverage is available in all
police formations nationwide,” he said.
Meanwhile, the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law
has dismissed the policing system being operated by the NPF as archaic,
noting that advanced countries are deploying information and
communication technology to fight crime.
Chairman of Intersociety, Mr Emeka Umeagbalasi, in a statement said
there was no other way to describe the request presented to the House by
the IGP other than “service mediocrity.”
He wondered when the Nigeria Police bosses and their military counterparts would “do away with archaic policing and soldiering.”
The statement read, “We also do not know why, when other police services
or forces around the world are fully embracing ICT policing, the NPF is
busy racing back to the yore and its concomitant archaic or
anachronistic policing.
“The Force is notorious for policing incompetence and has been haunted
by chronic data system collapse, including total collapse and
malfunctioning of its central crime statistics and database. Till date,
there are numerical contradictions with regard to the actual size of the
NPF.
“While the newly introduced Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information
under the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation puts the
personnel size of the NPF to about 290,000 to 300,000 as of 2018, the
authorities of the NPF have consistently maintained that Force is
peopled by 370,000 personnel. In other words, the present IGP is not
sure of the accurate size of the present NPF.”
The group also criticised the “near-total, if not total absence of a
credible database for weapons in the armouries of the police and their
movements, uses and safety. As a matter of fact, the data deficiencies
in the NPF are inherently entrenched and chronic.”
“A competent, lettered and ICT compliant IGP should have provided the
credible statistics of the number and type of weapons and personnel at
the disposal of the Force and their functionality index, before
demanding for additions or otherwise,” Intersociety said.
The statement further said, “The IGP should provide concrete answers to
the following: how many rifles, APCs and related weapons and
ammunitions, as well as personnel are there in the NPF? Where are they?
Are the rifles and related weapons safely or porously managed? Are they
being used for purposes they are legally meant for or illegally used for
motley of ‘service crimes and atrocities’ such as being used in aiding
‘religious and economic terrorist activities’ and high profile street
and roadway criminalities, i.e., kidnappings?
“Are the weapons and personnel truly used for securing generality of the
citizens or for sundry roadway crimes such as extortion? Is it correct
to say that many of these weapons and personnel are channelled into
protection of the so-called VIPs and corporate establishments such as
banks and multinational companies, all done in return for payment of
billions of naira monthly, which never reflect in any police budget
except in private pockets or coffers?
“At the non-state actor level, our questions are: are there credible
statistics domiciled with the NPF showing the number, movement and use
of illicit weapons such as small arms and light weapons in Nigeria or
any part thereof? How secured by the NPF through police border and
waterways or marine patrols are Nigeria’s four transnational borders and
over 8,600km of waterways?
“Who are truly responsible for arming jihadist Fulani herdsmen or
allowing them to openly source and bear rifles classified by the laws of
the country as prohibited firearms? How possible is it to believe that
the NPF is not complicit? Is it correct to say that the jihadist Fulani
herdsmen are now recognised by the NPF as Jihadist Fulani Herdsmen
Vigilante Group of Nigeria?”
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