ICYMI… RipplesMetrics: Sokoto has the worst police-to-citizen ratio. Where does your State rank?

Without a doubt, Nigeria is in the grips of a security crisis. Almost every day, from East to North, South to West, a report of a missing or killed Nigerian is made public.

In fact, data from the Council on Foreign Relations reveals that since the start of the year (January to August), no fewer than six thousand four hundred (6,400) Nigerians have been reported killed in various attacks and incidents.

Little wonder, the latest global peace index 2020 placed Nigeria as one of the world’s 20 least peaceful countries.

The index grouped Nigeria with war-torn nations such as Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria, South Sudan, Iraq, Somalia, Libya, and Pakistan, among others.

Despite the alarming statistics, it will surprise you to know that Nigeria has one of the world’s lowest police-to-citizen ratios far below the United Nations (UN) recommended ratio of 1 police officer to 450 persons.

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Ripples Nigeria takes a deep dive to the most recent statistics from the Nigeria Police Force to understand which States are considered worst in terms of police protection per citizen.

According to our analysis, in 2016 there was one police officer for every 572 Nigerians.
This ratio fell in 2017 to one officer for every 621 Nigerians, and one officer for every 648 Nigerian in 2018.

By ranking, in 2016, 2017, and 2018, the FCT had the greatest police-to-population ratios of 1:121, 1:90, and 1:181, respectively.

In contrast, Bauchi had the lowest police-to-citizen ratio in 2016, with 1:1,188; Abia had 1:1,309 in 2017, and Sokoto had 1:1,511 in 2018.

Here is how the states rank in the most recent statistics from the Police Headquarters:

States with the highest police population

NPF data also showed that the number of police officers has been on the decline.

There were 244,756 in 2016 protecting over 140 million Nigerians. In 2017 the number of police officers dropped to 225, 339 and again to 221.936 in 2018.

NPF data show Lagos State has the highest number of Police allocation, followed by Rivers state and Abuja.

Gender distribution of police officers

In 2016, female officers accounted for 19.09 per cent of the total police officers.

In 2017, the percentage of female police officers was 17.77 percent while the percentage of female police officers in 2018 was 9.75 per cent.

Analysis by cadre shows that in the three years under reference, the female gender had larger percentage in the rank and files cadre than in the senior police officer cadre.

The percentage of females in the Senior police officer was highest in 2016 (13.11), followed by 12.99 per cent in 2017 and dropped to 9.06 per cent in 2018. Furthermore, their percentage in the rank and files cadre was 20.74 percent in 2016, 19.52 per cent in 2017 and 10.14 percent in 2018.

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