IGP Usman Baba Reveals the Major Problem Nigeria Police is Facing
- Acting IGP Usman Baba said the Nigeria Police Force has a funding problem
- The police chief said the force only relies on the annual budgetary allocations which he said are not enough
- Reacting, the Speaker of the House of Reps, Femi Gbajabiamila, advised the police chief on the step to take to address the funding problem
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Alkali Usman Baba, the acting Inspector-General of Police (IGP), says Nigeria Police Force is poorly funded and has no money for its operations despite the serious security situation in the country.
The police made this known on Wednesday, April 21, when he met with the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, The Nation reports.
Source: Facebook
According to Baba, the police have no account to quickly draw money from to do quick deployment of operatives to mitigate or proactively stop security threats.
He said:
"Sincerely speaking, year-in, year-out, besides what we have as allocations, we have problems meeting emergencies.”
The police boss urged Gbajabiamila and the House to look into the police's predicament, saying there is little the force can do without funds.
He continued:
“Normally, operations should have a fund that you can quickly deploy to areas whether it is a natural or man-made crisis. The police do not have that at all. We always rely on our budgetary allocations which are not enough."
In his remarks, Gbajabiamila pledged the support of the House, saying the lawmakers have never cut funding for the police unless it was absolutely necessary.
The Speaker urged the IGP to do a needs assessment to be able to get funding to address their issues.
Gbajabiamila complained about the attitude of some policemen, especially the junior ones, wondering if it was due to lack of adequate training or lack of understanding of their constitutional role, a statement posted on the Speaker's Facebook page indicates.
He also complained about the poor appearance of junior policemen on the streets, urging that something should be done about it to improve the image of the force.
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In other news, the acting IGP has ordered the immediate disbandment of the IGP monitoring satellite offices in Lagos and Port Harcourt.
The police boss gave the order after Nigerians complained that the officers in the units were harassing them and operating beyond their briefs.
He made the disclosure on Thursday, April 15, at his maiden meeting with command police commissioners and zonal Assistant Inspector-General (AIG)'s in Abuja.
Source: Legit.ng
