The Commissioner of Police, Lagos State,
Mr. Fatai Owoseni on Thursday said that a police station in Nigeria
gets N45,000 in three months as running cost.
Owoseni said this while addressing
members of the Human Rights Defenders and Advocacy Centre, a civil
society organisation, who protested to his office in Ikeja.
The group urged the Federal Government
to probe the embezzlement of funds meant for fuelling of patrol
vehicles, stationery, uniforms and allowance for the Nigerian Police
Force.
The group had placards with inscriptions
such as ‘No More Embezzlement of Police Funds’, ‘IG is a thief’, ‘Why
are Police Officers buying Uniforms by themselves’ and ‘Junior Officers
dey work, Senior Officers dey chop’.
Addressing the protesters, Owoseni said
that the group was protesting on the basis of ignorance as police fund
was not embezzled.
He said that government could not be
blamed for the low budgetary allocation to the police as there were many
other competing sectors to be catered for.
He said, “As civil society organisation,
you need to get your facts right and stop making false accusation or
fight on the basis of ignorance.
“Nobody is siphoning police fund, the
budget is open. By the time you divide what is appropriated to the
police force, it will amount to N45,000 to a police station in three
months.
“What can N45,000 do to fund an Ikeja
police station in three months? And you cannot blame government because
there are other competing needs such as education, health,
infrastructure and so on.
“It is difficult to fund security
anywhere in the country; so, within what is available to the country as
revenue, government will have to prioritise and we have been using our
resources as best as we can to discharge our duties.
“So, it is a wrong accusation to say
that the IG or the commissioners are siphoning police fund. We should be
working to orientate the public on how to boost government revenue, so
that allocations can come up.”
Owoseni urged members of the public to make use of the ‘Smart Police’ application to report any police misconduct.
Earlier, Mr Innocent Agbo, Chairman of
the group said that they had written several letters to the Inspector
General of police to explain to the public why police officers,
especially the junior officers, were not properly taken care of, but he
never replied.
“From our investigation, we discovered
that these police needs are being budgeted for every year, but it is not
utilised but siphoned to private pockets.
“This year, about N564 million was
budgeted for uniforms and clothing, but out of the 278, 000 personnel,
95 per cent bought their uniforms, boots and other kits. Looking at the
policemen, there is no similarity in their attire because it is sourced
from different sources.
“All police stations in the country do
not get allocation for fueling of patrol vehicles and about N603 million
was budgeted for fuel and lubricants. Complainants are made to pay for
all these. Travel allowances are not paid and vehicles are being
maintained by officers.
“This has led to serious misconduct by
policemen who resorted to extorting the general public in order to fund
their needs and operations.
“We are here so that the CP can take our
demands to the appropriate authorities. We also call on the Federal
Government to increase police allocation, so as to eradicate
corruption.
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