No less than N2.046 billion has been budgeted for the upgrade of
facilities at the various police colleges across the country, yet the
condition of living in the colleges remains pitiable.
LEADERSHIP investigations revealed that, in the budget years of 2009,
2010, 2011 and 2012, over N2 billion was budgeted for the upgrade of
facilities in police colleges and training institutions located in eight
states namely Lagos, Kaduna, Borno, Enugu, Oyo, Rivers, Ondo, and Osun
states.
The authorities of the Nigeria Police were shifting blames yesterday
when LEADERSHIP enquired about the whereabouts of the funds meant for
the maintenance of police colleges nationwide.
The Senate has summoned the police authorities to give account of the budgetary allocations to the police colleges.
LEADERSHIP checks has revealed that the Kaduna college is
uninhabitable, while the opposition parties have called on the federal
government not to victimise anybody in a bid to apportion blame.
A breakdown of budgetary allocation to the Nigerian Police for the
yearly upgrade of police colleges and training institutions between
2009 and 2012 is as follows: 2009 – N700 million, 2010 – N759 million,
2011 – N291 million, 2012 – N296 million, bringing it to a total of
N2.046 billion.
In the 2012 budget, N52 million was provided for motorcycles, N203
million for vehicles, N310 million for vans, and N596 million for
armoured personnel carriers.
The police command also proposed N431 million for arms and
ammunition, N84 million for video security surveillance systems in
Borno, Kano, Oyo, Edo and Anambra states, N52 million for automatic
fingerprint identification system, N84 million for forensic and DNA test
laboratory, and N241 million for explosive ordinance disposal equipment
for the anti-bomb squad.
Other items of expenditure in the 2012 budget include N295 million
for anti-riot equipment, N450 million for bullet-proof vests gear, N243
million for “anti-terrorism equipment”, N165 million for security
intelligence equipment, and N271 million for UHF walkie-talkies and
rehabilitation of its outdated analog UHF communications system. The
budget for barracks’ rehabilitation and construction is N585 million.
The cover over the sorry state of the police training institutions
was blown open following a report on the terrible state of the Nigeria
Police College, Ikeja, Lagos, done by Channels Television recently.
The documentary, it is believed, prompted President Goodluck
Jonathan’s surprise visit to the Nigeria Police College in Ikeja, Lagos,
on his way to Cote d’ Ivoire for an ECOWAS meeting, last week.
The visit, said to be “a fact-finding inspection” by a police source,
was intended to enable the president address certain issues hampering
the qualitative training of policemen.
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