Nigerian Police Force is Under-Equipped, Underfunded: The Need For Urgent Rescue. A visit to any Police barrack or station in the country today will show you what unsecure state called Nigeria we live in. No good vehicle to move with to combat robbers, the weapons are glorified village hunters guns, some of their uniforms are only better compared with rags, the monthly take home can only buy you Ice cream at Tantaliser, No accomodation, No! No encouragement.

These are the men that often dont sleep in thier homes but in the cold daily in a bid to protect lives and property, just imagine the cold/rain outside without jacket to cover up not to talk of tourchlight to light their way to work. What will they use to combat robbers evn when the batten given to then has broken. How do a police officer that does not have a good gun will combat robbers that are "full loaded". No wonder they are killed everyday and little or nothing is done to compesate the families.

No wonder the poor Police officer choose the option collecting "tolls" to survive. At least since he does not have good weapon to combat Armed Robber at least with batten or nothing you can arrest innocent ladies that appears to you to have dressed indecently, a "yuppy guy that wear earing or plait his hair or get involvd in civil matter that does not concern you. (Though Not Justified)

Please let us discuss it, what must we do to "arrest" this situation, what should the government do to help the police from recruiting, training, equipping, encouraging or motivation, ? Our men can do better if encouraged.

Sorry o, but the money that should be used to pay the police will be be used to reprint the naira.

@poster

Could this be d reason why all the police IGs we've had since 1999 are thieves

Seriously this is a case that really needs an urgent attention!

Nigeria should set their priorities right!

Why would they spend so much money just to furnish the senators' house that does little or no job and jeopardise the

lives of the hardworking policeman!

The first thing that needs to be done to reform the Nigerian Police force is to change thier uniform from black to something close to blue or green.

Secondly, pump in more money,

Thirdly, employ the help of foreign police force to help train our police on security and human rights.

The fraudulent nature of our IG's is a replica of what the Force is.
Its only God that protects one.

To reform the police here are the key changes required:

1. Provide good accomodation idealy in purpose built barracks

2. provide adequate transportaion, squad cars, mini buses e.t.c

3. Provide sufficient training to enable them to do the basic policing tasks

4. Within the force provide a number of elite squads whose sole responsibility is to provide armed response with high
caliber weapons
5. Provide a good comminucations network within police force each area should at leaset be able to contact
patrol/squad cars in its area of jurisdiction, this should be extended nationwide. Also the public communications needs to be sorted out so that the public can at least contact the police. It would be nice if there was a common communications network for all the emergency services - Police, Fire brigades, air & sea rescue and well as ambulance.

6. Raise the recruitment standards and make sure not just anyone is allowed to join

7. Flush out the bad eggs, anyone caught should be sacked with out any pension, the old timers will try to resist this but it's got to be done even if its going to be bloody.

8. In addition to 1 above provide very attractive benefits i.e. good pensions to all personel, free health care, travel allowance, car allowance e.t.c

9. Have a mixture of Civilian, police and government officials who will be responsible for monitoring the activity of the police and also make it easy for members of the public to report criminal activity carried out by police officer disloyal to the force.

The government DOES have the money to do all I have listed above but because those in power don't have to face what ordinary citizens encounter with police men they are not bothered, they have got their priorities all wrong.

Here we go with all this barrage of ATTACKS on the EX- IGS, please give me 5 names of past IGPS that have been indicted or jail for mis-appropriation of funds beside TAFA BALOGUN. Please respond with facts and not fabrications. I've been crying about police neglection over 4 years, now that Nigerians are seeing the adverse effect of UN-equipped police, now the crime are getting close to rich peoples home, we are all focusing our attention on this issue. How do you expect personnel of 350,000 to effectively manage crime in a nation of over 140 Million citizens? How can they respond to crime, when they have flash lights and no battery?

Nigeria police account section and those top, old ,big stomach who kids fly across Europe and America for shopping or lunch should be checked . Nigerians will never have hope in it police until police reform is done. All the donations from western countries and yearly or monthly allocation to our police force are wrongly managed. We have no police in Nigeria but robbers www.nigeriapolice.org

Maybe we should be posting our views here : http://www.nigeriapolice.org/forum/

without a viable police, people can even turn their homes into kirikiri prison with all the high walls,metal gates and ferocious dogs.
They can even hire maiguards with the sharpest bow and arrow skills,it won't help.
God help us

who be +osisi again? abi na my good friend be dis?

Police equipment is important, but more lacking is a correct attitude and mindset to do the job properly.

Simple intelligence gathering, not sitting at check points collecting money, and cultivating the trust of the public will help with robberies more,its not always about guns, but when the same police will go and deal with the armed robbers to deal with you, why wd you volunteer information even if you have it?

The police force is grossly underfunded and policemen are underpaid. If they were well paid, most of them will not be corrupt. No man will want to compromise his dignity for a penny unless forced to as a result of difficulties in earning a living. Most policemen are demotivated by their salaries and the compensation that have seen paid to families of their colleagues when they loose their lives in active service. They are also ill-equipped and not properly trained to tackle crime in the society. Some policemen earn as little as N12k. Even the little funds that are allocated to them get pocketed by the top brass in the Police. Unless these issues are addressed, there will be no improvements in the police force.

There are a lot of bad eggs and criminally minded people in the police force, however, we
will be wasting our time talking about reforms if issues like police welfare is not considered
paramount.

How do we expect to begin effecting an attitude change if we continue to keep a majority
of them at below poverty level? Its only when the police are paid better and are provided
with adequate accommodation that we can hope to see a new Nigerian police force.

Finally, Mamajama is right, the country is under-policed. There is no way less than 500,000
people can effectively police a country of of about 140million people - not to even mention
that they lack basic equipment. The police are just another reflection of the neglect that is
all too common in Nigeria especially in social services. Virtually all the politicians are corrupt
in spite of the fact that they are generally more well to do, how do we expect the police to
be any different?

now my recommendation.The senate should form a serious committee that would lead to police upgrading and advancement.
1) Illiterates or semi-illiterates should no longer serve as policemen
2) Suitable accomodation should be provided for policemen. If possible, police estates should be built so that once you are policeman, you are accomodated there.
3) police help lines such as 911 should be established
4) Only some special policemen properly trained and equipped should face robbery situations. this would help reduce the issue of police guns used for robbery.
5) the senate should also ensure that important equipment like CCTV SHOULD BE provided
6) for sure, salary upgrade
7) police should be served food at their stations(most important)
more people, especially you nairaland people should be encouraged to join police
9) there should be a police academy where people would apply through JAMB
10)there should be legal and human rights department of police to help advice police

debosky:

who be +osisi again? abi na my good friend be this?

Police equipment is important, but more lacking is a correct attitude and mindset to do the job properly.

Simple intelligence gathering, not sitting at check points collecting money, and cultivating the trust of the public will help with robberies more,its not always about guns, but when the same police will go and deal with the armed robbers to deal with you, why wd you volunteer information even if you have it?

debo na me o
I 've been baptized and confirmed

ah, I for say who be dis impostor.

why you no beg for forgiveness now? oga released many prisoners today o, he might have had mercy on you too.

while the poverty level thing is true, it is not a reason for the criminality, there are many poor people who do not resort to crime, especially when you have sworn to protect and uphold the law. there is a basic integrity flaw in much of the police force that more money cannot solve. if it was simply a case of poverty, why do some leaders steal billions they cannot even finish spending in 2 lifetimes? Greed/Corruption needs to be stamped out, the police needs to be seen as a group that people trust, TRUST is paramount, without trust, there is no information, many crimes can be nipped in the bud before it becomes a case of a shoot out between the police and the criminals, but when there is no trust, no one supplies you with the intelligence.

i strongly belive that the FG have special allocations to the police but ther ogas over there will pocket the money and advice them to be harsh on the innocent individuals to make there moni, na tif them b for there, there ogas are Fraud, na only God go help us for there hand ohhh, make the IG of police wake up and giv to his boys what ritly belongs to them and stop malttreatinhg them

what about the case against formeer IG did any1 know what they arrived at, abi the don close the case as usual

no be Seun ban me.
I wanted to shorten my name

Do you have ay idea of how much extra money police make from checkpoints in Naija daily?

DPO gets their cuts on way upwards to IG office.Each police division has to make deliveries to IG office or someone gets redeployed.Why do you think former Kano, River or Lagos state CP are the favorite for IG posts.

Ehindero bought IG house for N400m and owns multiple houses in high Lagos and Abuja. $3m house from paycheck? All they have in Naija are uniformed are boys serving their area fathers a system decribed by Adedibu himself "Amala Police"

I think the security details of public officers should be reduced. Over 200 policemen gaurd one man while 1 police man is to 4000 citizens.
However, I think there should be a serious probe into the funds of police account departments and an upward review of salaries and benefits.
No one will risk his life without adequate motivation and consideration of his family safety and childrens welfare

we all know what the nigerian police force lacks funds, why rapping? like me and my paps have discussed at many seminars and conferences: nigeria needs state and city police. Nigeria stil needs to decentralize power at every level of government. Its all chocked up in the center.

I am very much concerned about this issue, the Police is supposed to be the best friend to the Civil Society the now in our Country and probably most part of the Country it seems as if there are no police securities any longer.

There is these incidence concerning arson of people suspected to be criminals or thieves by the civilian communities typical example in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. These issue calls for serious concern as most of those vigilanty group might end up one day roasting an innocent citizen whom probably might be a stanger unknown.

Should these incidence be occouring? What is the security assurance of the innocent citizens and to what extent especially travellers?

Who should really convict a thief or criminal?

How should the community and the vigilant group treat thieves or criminal and what are the duties of the police concerning situation like this?

Lets join hands to fight against the menace of our societal deviancy such as juvenile delinquency and other vices that degrades our environment.

1) Set Up A Judicial systems
2) The Jail and other forms of punishment
3) Set up a police School in every locality that will train the civil core.
4) You need a 1 million highly trained police service.
5) pay this 1 million an average of $2000 per month this will total 24billion a year
6) Divide the police into 2 parts SWATS and officers for intelligentsia and others
7) Set up a police housing fund (A POLICE MAN CAN TAKE A HOUSE ANYWHERE IN NIGERIA HE DEMANDS)
If a police officer falls short he will be sacked and he will loose all his entitlements e.g House


but in the short term you can have what I call VPOLICING i.e voluntary policing this can be done when every citizens is given the opportunity to work and police 6 hours a day.

we can;t stop talking about the Nigerian Police,we know that the Police lack proper funding,Man power and training to combat crime.we at the private security keep shouting on how we can help the police but no body dey hear our voice.no wonder why the Police posing as the law keep priventing private security guards not to carry fire Arms.but i know thatb Good people sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.

sultaan:

Ehindero bought IG house for N400m and owns multiple houses in high Lagos and Abuja. $3m house from paycheck? All they have in Naija are uniformed are boys serving their area fathers a system decribed by Adedibu himself "Amala Police"

Speculation, do you have evidence the house was worth that price beside the allegations published in the useless media?

How come Road safety is doing well without them guns?

It's all about the mentality jare!

Road safety may be doing well without gun as they dont even need a gun to do thier Job. Eve at that they also have their own peculiar problems.

As for whether one is speculating the contract sum of Ehindero is not an issue here at they beside every rumour there are some elements of truth, even if the houses are 20,000 where did he get the money from? i know he will say that it is from private business as all of us are fools in Nigeria, may be they tot we dont know that the constitution forbid any civil servant from engaging in a private bussiness.

Like somebody rightly said, the police problem is leadership, if you donate any good vehicles now to the Police, the senior officers will convert them to their wives and children use while police station does not have even a common motorcycle. Have you not observed how neat the senior police officers vehicles are and how many is attached to one single senior officer.

If you are unfortunate to get arrested and detained in any of the police stations' cell, you can only imagine to compare it with the discription of hell fire you read in the holy books, no food, no beddings. no nothing, to even take your statement you have to provide money for biro and papers in some police stations even though these monies are budgeted and released every year.

I think our concern here should be to see how we can help salvage our society and help the junior officers to have a better police force in Nigeria.

This is a sensitive issue.Are we sure that after more funds is pumped into the NPF the police would not come back to haunt us with their ever-increasing barbaric tendencies? Are we sure that they wont turn more violent and use the funds inappropriately?, Are we sure that their Bosses would not see this as another avenue to enrich their already-full pockets?, Are we sure that the money would not be used to buy weapons which will eventually get into the hands of armed robbers who have these policemen as suppliers? Are we sure that given more ammo and patrol vans and cars, our innocent lives will be in safe conditions? Are we sure that the problems on the ineffectiveness of this force stem from their lack of funds and not greed? Let us be careful so dat we wont play with our future.The Nigerian Police force has done more harm than good in this country and we should always be wary when dealing with them. CAUTION!!![color=#006600][/color][size=8pt][/size]

when he @thunder74  In response to your post.  Was it against the law for Ehindero who has been publishing books that was and is st wrote his still been used to train police in most west African countries to be compensated for the work he has been doing since st book Police and the Law as an ASP?   The issue with the police force I must disagree with most people that are not familiar with the police process is not that of leadership.  Charity begins at home they said.  The Federal government and all the past presidency never look at the police force as a necessity.  Now that their kids are getting kidnap and they are getting rubbed we have an attention focus on the wave of crime.  DO you know what the police annual budget is?

Do you know why the police service commission can't provide housing allowance to the police officers?

How can you pay someone 9000 naira a month and you expect result? 

how do you expect 350,000 personnel to effectively manage a nation of 140 Million effectively? 

Can you justify why the ARMY, NAVY and AIrforce are well over paid compare to the police officers?

Why don't we have computers at the police stations.

We have a speaker of the house spending over 200 Million for renovation of 2 houses and police officers have flash lights with no batteries.

We won't have effective policemen in Nigeria until one of the senators kid or the president kid is gruesomely killed by criminals, mark my words.

Ehindero went to the senate 2 years ago to seek increase pay for police officers.  The higher pay was approved in November and

till date this people are still expecting the payment, Now tell me how can you motivate your employees when they are hungry?

point of correction! the Nigerian police are not underfunded but the worms like corruption has eating deep down their bone marrow that it will take more than a transplant to correct.

amaikama they are under funded, what is the budget for NPF? how many helicopter does the force have? are they well paid? in comparison to the ARMY?

Amaikama you need to research how much a police officer is being paid before you talk. I know you will be suprised to hear that a Corporal is paid 7000 naira monthly. What do you expect a family man to do with that? Is it for feeding, transport, house rent or what? Imagine the Speaker of the House spending over six hundred million naira on renovation of a house alone. How much is the annual budget of the Police force. When you get to some Police stations you will not see a single vehicle while govrnment official have over 2o cars for their use. I think we have priority problem in this country.