Published 1 November 2021
The Nigeria Police Force has yet to provide adequate patrol vehicles and two-way radios for most of its personnel despite receiving N58.9 billion for capital projects in six years.
Analysis of the police budgets from 2015 to 2020 indicates that the force proposed N115.8billion for capital projects while N58.9billion was released by the Federal Government.
Items in the capital budget include security equipment, air navigational equipment, vehicles and trucks, industrial equipment, books, police stations, barracks, rehabilitation of residential and office buildings, aerodromes, and medical equipment.
In 2020, capital appropriation was N14.2billion but the amount released was N12.billion. In 2019, the police received N6.3billion capital vote out of the proposed N22,064,903 while N11.9billion was released out of the N25.1billion allocated in 2018.
In 2017, N9,099,136,000 was said to have been released out of the N20.1billion proposed for capital projects while N10, 026,818,000 was released out of the capital allocation of N16.1billion in 2016.
The NPF reportedly got N8.9billion out of N17.8billion proposed in its 2015 budget.
Though the Ministry of Police Affairs allocated N20 million for the provision of two-way radios and security solutions for the police in its 2020 appropriation, there was no evidence that the gadgets were supplied.
Investigation revealed that the police commands and formations had a budget of N2,037,820,626, 202 out of the N7,786,923,450,732 allocated for national security between 2015 and 2020 by the government.
Police officers, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of sanction, said only senior officers were given two-way radios, adding that policemen on patrol depended on their mobile phones to communicate with their superiors.
This situation, it was gathered, had endangered many police officers who were sometimes unable to call for reinforcement while under attack due to a lack of standard police communication gadgets.
A sergeant, who spoke with our correspondent on Wednesday, said only three officers have walkie-talkies in his department, out of the 12 policemen in the unit.
The traffic officer said, “In our department, only three men have communication radios out of the 12 men in the unit. They are the Division’s Traffic Officer, the Deputy and an Inspector.
“The other nine officers depend on cell phones to communicate with their superiors. And this is the situation in nearly all police stations and formations across the country.”
Policemen on street patrol bemoaned the lack of infrastructure, particularly, vehicles, radios, bullet-proof vests, and other accoutrements as investigations showed that most …….
Source: https://punchng.com/police-lack-vehicles-fuel-communication-gadgets-receive-n58-9bn-in-six-years/