Police Want Five Times Allocated Budget
Suleiman Abba, the inspector general of police, has said that the Nigeria police would need a budget of N24 billion to effectively fuel and maintain its vehicles in 2015, compared to the N5 billion provision in the 2015 budget before the National Assembly.
Abba was represented by his deputy in charge of logistics and supplies, Mamman Tsafe, at a budget defence session before the Senate Committee on Police Affairs in Abuja, PM News reports.
According to Abba,the N5 billion proposed for maintaining and fuelling the vehicles was grossly inadequate, as the police now had more officers and vehicles.
The strength of the police he said, has increased to 332,756 policemen, 6,693 traffic wardens and 11,999 civilian workers, with 3,756 police stations. The growth in workforce should result in an increase in funding instead of the overhead and capital budget proposed, which did not reflect the actual needs of the police.
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Abba further disclosed that out of the N56 billion overhead proposed by the police in 2014, only N8 billion had been approved, out of which N5 billion was released. For the capital budget, N218 billion was proposed, N7 billion was approved and only N3 billion was released.
“The 2015 budget estimates of the Force summed up to N329 billion; capital expenditure N17 billion, overhead cost N5 billion and personnel cost N306 billion.
“The capital and overhead budget estimates for the 2015 as presented above are the ‘envelopes’ or ‘ceilings’ given to the police and do not reflect the actual needs of the force,” he told the committee, while appealing for assistance so that the police force would be repositioned to carry out its responsibilities effectively.
The chairman of the committee, Senator Nwagu, advised the police to start looking for ways to generate revenue to augment what has been budgeted for its operations, since the entire budget is already being affected by the falling price of oil, and consequent cut in the proposals for all the ministries, departments and parastatals of government. He also said there was a need to tighten all leakages at this critical time.
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Tsafe later told journalists that the police may be forced to start generating revenue like other government agencies. He said prior to this time, the police had never been known to be a revenue-generating body, but must now face realities.
“We have so many services we render to the members of the public. Very recently the minister organised seminars for internally generated revenue and definitely we will come out when it is finalised. We have already explained that the budget implementation was at 40 per cent,” he said.
Even with this challenge, he said that the police were adequately prepared for the forthcoming general elections.
Meanwhile, the police in Lagos have arrested at least 18 people suspected to have participated in the fracas which claimed at least five lives and destroyed property worth several millions of naira in Osodi, Lagos on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Source: Legit.ng
