Why police fail so badly — Former AIG

A former Assistant Inspector General of Police and Vice President of the Association of Retired Police officers of Nigeria (ARPON) Alhaji Hamisu Ali has identified poor funding as one of multiple challenges facing the Nigerian Police Force and the major reason why the country’s lead internal security agency is unable to curb with several security challenges.

Ali in an interview with selected journalists in Jos said the Nigerian Police Force with strength of 305 000 was being starved of funds, adding that between 2012 and 2017, the force had made a proposal of about N1.32 trillion for its capital projects but only got about N43.43 billion. He said within the same period, the force had made a proposal of about N418.78 for its overhead but had only received about N37.216.

The former AIG explained, “If you talk about challenges of insecurity in the country and you consider the performance of the police, with the inadequacies they are facing in terms of logistics, then you will praise the Nigeria police force, to be candid. They are performing wonders. It will be unbelievable that with the inadequacies of logistics they are facing, they are doing what they are doing now. They deserve the citizen’s praises as well as that of the government.”

He appealed to the National Assembly to harmonises the Nigerian Police Development Fund and the Police Trust Fund bills as well as fast track passages of the bills adding, “These bills have been in the National Assembly for quite some time and one wonders the delay in acting on them expeditiously.”