A Civil Society Organisation, Societal Safety Network (SSN), has charged the leadership of the National Assembly to provide more fund to enable the Nigeria police tackle the spate of killing, banditry and kidnapping in the country.
The group in an open letter to the President of the Senate, Dr. Ahmed Ibrahim Lawan, dated February 18, 2020 and signed by the executive director, Abdulrahman Agboola, noted that the open letter was intended to bring the senate president to terms with the indisputable impasse mitigating against the fight against criminalities.
The letter read in part: “You admitted recently in your concluding remarks on a Bill to Repeal the Police Act and enact the Nigeria Police Bill that we are in a very unusual time and you stated the need to adjust the structure and that the problem is not just about making funds available, otherwise it will just be a sinking fund. Going by this your statement, you hold a strong believe that the government already appropriated the deserving fund for the operations of the Nigeria Police.
“According to the 2020 Appropriation Bill, out of N403 billion allocated to police formation and commands, total personnel cost is N370, 949,627,545, total overhead Cost is N18,250,565,304 and total capital is N14, 509,258,151. If you take a critical measure of the application of these funds, they look big as lump sum but you will discover that the appropriated fund didn’t provide for both the efficiency and effectiveness of the Nigeria Police Force.
“For the avoidance of doubt, intelligence gathering, preventive crime measures and regular patrols are the elementary stages of policing and they are very essential and most fundamental in crime prevention and control techniques, to what tune did the appropriated fund for police formations and commands catered for this? It is not a puzzle sir.
“Items 22020801, 22020803 and 22021003 in the 2020 appropriated fund, fuel & lubricants – N589,463,926 was allocated for motor vehicle fuel cost and N114,623,906 allocated for plant/generator fuel cost while N142,534,801 was allocated for publicity and advertisements.”
