Senate queries N19b vote to police

The upper legislative chamber has queried the N19billion vote allocated to the Police out of the N53billion initially earmarked in the 2016 budget.

The lawmakers also expressed worry over what it described as the lopsided promotion exercise embarked upon by the Police Service Commission.

Chairman, Senate Committee on Police Affairs, Senator Abu Ibrahim, raised these issues while speaking with reporters in Abuja at the weekend.

Senator Ibrahim, who hinted that the committee would meet on Tuesday over the issue, said: “Obviously, with the present poor situation of police preparedness to meet the challenges of our time, we certainly need to do something concrete and urgently if we are to overcome the everyday threat to the lives and property of Nigerians,” he said.

Senator Ibrahim noted that there was no doubt that the biggest problem facing police affairs is poor funding.

According to him, “Police personnel cannot go for training, they do not have enough vehicles to operate effectively and they lack every necessary working tool.”

Ibrahim insisted that ‘to carry out their assignment, if we really want our internal security to be guaranteed, the standard of police services to meet the challenges of our time must be improved financially, materially and professionally.”

He said that in order to address the problems holistically, his committee was prepared to propose a bill, in conjunction with the ministries of Interior and Justice, on the floor of the Senate.

He noted that they believed that apart from the normal yearly federal budget allocation to the police, there was the need to introduce Police Trust Fund so as to have substantial amount of money for police operations.

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