The management of the Nigeria Police Force has stopped
recruitment into the force as a result of paucity of funds,
The PUNCH learnt on Tuesday.
The last recruitment into the police was in 2011.
Our correspondent learnt that poor budgetary allocations
had been hindering the Force from adding to its current
400,000 policemen and policewomen.
In 2014, the NPF had a total budget allocation of
N292.35bn, though the amount that was released could not
be ascertained as of the time of this report.
The police proposed N329,669,237,019 in the 2015 budget,
comprising N306,773,439,285 for personnel and
N5,895,797,734 for overheads.
“With the increasing rate of crime in the country, we need
more policemen, but we have not been able to recruit
because of paucity of funds,” a top police officer confided
in The PUNCH on Tuesday.
It was learnt that the police under Mohammed Abubakar, a
former Inspector- General of Police, had in 2014 sought
approval to recruit 30,000 personnel, but the government
approved only 10,000 men to be recruited into the Force.
Even with the approval, no money was released for the
exercise until it became close to the election time, making it
impossible to recruit and train the new hands before the
polls.
It was learnt that the money for the suspended recruitment
had been used to pay salaries and other incidental
expenses.
Besides the inability to recruit, it was further gathered that
some detectives had been demanding money from
complainants to enable them to investigate cases.
The NPF, it was also learnt, had been borrowing money
from some commercial banks to pay the salaries of its
personnel since October, 2014.
Findings indicated that the Police Management Team was
shortly before the 2015 general elections forced to obtain
loan facilities to avert a mutiny from police personnel, some
of whom had been complaining about the non-payment of
their promotion arrears and other emoluments.
Checks also showed that the borrowing started under the
former IGP, Suleiman Abba, who was sacked by former
President Goodluck Jonathan in April, 2015, shortly after
the general elections.
Our correspondent gathered that the insolvency of the
police was responsible for its inability to pay the salary
arrears of policemen that were promoted in 2013.
The PUNCH had exclusively reported in February, 2015 that
some 15,000 policemen had threatened to go on strike over
the inability of the police management to pay their
promotion arrears.
Sources told our correspondent on Tuesday that the police
management was forced to obtain a loan from some banks
to pay its personnel in order to avert a strike, which would
have marred the general elections in March.
One of the sources stated that police could still not pay the
salary arrears because the money available was being used
to offset salaries only.
“The situation is so bad that our detectives cannot
investigate most criminal complaints because there is no
money for logistics. In most cases, they ask the
complainant to provide the logistics (money) for their
transport and hotel accommodation, if the investigation
requires travelling from one city to another,” a source
stated.
When asked how long the police would sustain the
borrowing, the source explained that banks had not given
the Force any ceiling or limits, noting that the police would
continue to borrow until the government released its
withheld funds.
He said, “The banks have not given us any borrowing limit,
so we will continue to borrow until our financial situation
improves.
“The banks are happy to give us the money because it suits
their business interests. They know that they won’t lose
their money, so they encourage us to get loan facilities to
meet our obligations. You know the police cannot afford not
to pay its personnel.”
Another source explained that the expectations of
contractors might be dashed as the force did not have any
extra money with which to service their debts, stressing
that the Police High Command was only focused on settling
salaries for now.
Asked how the IG was able to raise money to procure about
555 pick-up vehicles for his newly launched Safer Highway
Initiative, the source said the vehicles were bought with part
of the money that was released for election logistics.
Abubakar had complained about the steady decline in
budgetary allocations for overheads to the police in spite of
the increasing security challenges they had to contend with.
Speaking at the 2014 budget defence in the Senate in
February 2014, the former IG had said the budget office
earmarked N279bn for personnel cost against N293bn
required to pay the police personnel.
He complained about the shortfall of N14.4bn in the
provision for personnel cost, noting that out of the N14bn
appropriated for capital expenditure in 2013, only N10.9bn
was released.
Although the current IG, Solomon Arase, had denied that the
police borrowed money to pay salaries, a top officer
insisted that the Force secured loans from banks.
“As one of the agencies of the Federal Government, we
have not had cause to take a loan from banks,” Arase had
said while answering questions during a meeting with senior
police officers at the Force Headquarters, Abuja, two weeks
ago.
When asked on Tuesday, if the police were borrowing to pay
its personnel, the Force Public Relations Officer, Emmanuel
Ojukwu, neither denied nor confirmed it.
“The NPF is maximizing the funds available to it,” he simply
said.
He explained that the Force only recruited specialists in
2013, adding that the recruitment of personnel would soon
be done.
“The last time we recruited was two years ago when we
engaged specialists, but I believe we will soon recruit more
personnel,” he stated.
In response to the report that police detectives had been
demanding money from complainants to investigate
criminal cases, the Force spokesman said it was illegal for
any policeman to demand money to investigate complaints.source http://www.punchng.com/news/lack-of-funds-halts-recruitment-into-police/

Well, kindly provide ur source.



Thank You

U dey sleep ni!

ORACLE1975:
U dey sleep ni!

see this pesin ooo! Na now u put source

mormoni:
see this pesin ooo! Na now u put source

when u are busy with ftc things abi ?

ORACLE1975:
when u are busy with ftc things abi ?

this post no go hit FP, so no need.

Ok ooooo. I dey wait sha. Any time dem strt to recruit I go join cos the Lagos state assistant ppro ALIYU GIWA n one gallant officer ADAMU MUYE made me luv d police force..those guys r amazing police officers wit much swag n both of em r nairalanders.

Police and money issues hmmmmm