By Adedayo Akinwale
The Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, has blamed the insecurity in the North- west, especially with the bandits waxing stronger, and the difficulty in the restoration of civil authority in the North-east on lack of funding for police operations.
Adamu disclosed this yesterday in Abuja when he appeared before the House Committee on Police to defend the budget of the force, saying the lack of funding was due to lack of appropriate releases of the 2020 appropriation.
The police boss also decried the non-availability of a budget life to cater for police special operations in the country, adding that there was a negative impact in the personnel deployment and operational management of various security centres due to lack of operational account.
Adamu stated: “The 2020 appropriation releases were the problems. The capital appropriated was N14.2 billion but the amount released was N12.8 billion, with outstanding N1.4 billion yet to be released.
“Because of lack of appropriate releases, there were challenges noticed during the implementation of the 2020 budget. The problem of envelope budgeting and sealing is always a problem; partial releases of appropriated fund is a problem, emerging security issues across the country, especially North-west without fund for operational support is a problem for us.
“Lack of funding for police operation in the restoration of civil authority in the North-east- that is Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states is a problem for us. Unanticipated crisis such as the global threat of Covid-19 pandemic came unprepared and no funding. #EndSARS protests and the optimal destruction of police national asset will require funding to bring back the structures back to life.”
Adamu further explained that the 2021 budget estimates for the force is N469.4 billion, but added that the budget office’s final submission to the National Assembly indicated that a total sum of N449.6 billion was submitted to the National Assembly, which he said was a reduction of about N21.7 billion from the initial estimate.
According to him, The implication is that, under ideal situation, the amount that has been reviewed cannot meet up with the requirement of policing the country. For example, the daily fuel consumption for our vehicles that have petrol engine will take about N22.5 billion to fuel it within the year. The motorcycles we have, it will require N834.4 million to fuel and those vehicles using diesel will require about N1.4 billion. So, fuelling alone will take about N24.8 billion.
The IG noted that the primacy of the Nigerian Police as a lead agency in internal security matter was being challenged with inadequate funding, stressing that his desire is to restore the dignity and pride of place of the force within the internal security architecture of the country.
Adamu said that force is blessed with officers and men who are not only intellectually gifted, but exceptionally committed and professionally sound enough to surmount the security challenges facing the nation, but stressed that funding is required to provide these personnel logistics to carry out their responsibility.
He said the success of ongoing police reform requires that more needs to be done, especially in the areas of adequate funding and institutionalisation of structures in the force
