Nigeria Police Requires N245 Billion Boost To Tackle Shortage Of Patrol Vehicles

Appearing before the House of Representatives on Tuesday, the Inspector General (IG) highlighted inadequate funding and manpower as significant challenges confronting the Nigeria Police Force…CONTINUE READING

Egbetokun stated, “The police also find themselves operating in a very difficult environment. The manpower in the police today is grossly inadequate.

Even the criminals know that. The United Nations ratio of 1 to 400 is not attainable in Nigeria as of today because the ratio in Nigeria is one to 1,000, which suggests that we have to double the manpower.

“We have 1,537 police divisional headquarters across 774 local government areas. However, getting operational vehicles for the divisions is difficult. Each of these divisions requires at least four functional patrol vehicles. But we have divisions which don’t have any patrol vehicles as of today.”

To meet the allocation of four patrol vehicles per divisional headquarters, approximately 6,148 vehicles would be needed. According to The PUNCH’s investigation, the minimum cost of a new Toyota Hilux V6, commonly used by the police, is N40 million.

Thus, the procurement cost for the required 6,148 vehicles would amount to N245,920,000,000.

During his presentation to the National Assembly, the IG emphasized the critical need for increased funding to address the challenges faced by the police force.

“No agency can perform with limited resources available to it. In the last five months, we have made a lot of arrests. We have made a lot of recovery of illicit weapons.

Some of these suspects are undergoing prosecution as we speak. But no amount of arrests that we make will solve our security problem. Today, we make arrests of 100, and tomorrow, 200 criminals are coming out,” he stated.

In a separate interview, retired Deputy Inspector General of Police, Adedayo Adeoye, urged President Bola Tinubu to declare a six-month state of emergency to combat insecurity.

Additionally, he called for increased funding for the Nigeria Police Force and the withdrawal of officers from VIP escort duties to bolster the workforce and address security challenges.