National Assembly Committees on Police Affairs at the Senate and the House of Representatives blamed low funding of Police as hampering the ongoing war on terrorism as Federal Government sliced off N18 billion from Police budget.
Addressing the 2022 conference and retreat for senior Police officers which ended on Wednesday at the Ibom Icon Hotel and Golf Resort, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, the lawmakers lamented the festering security crises prevailing in the country, and.challenged the forum to come out with implementable blueprint that would reposition the force for effective crime fighting.
The Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Police Affairs, Bello Usman Kumo, wondered why the N28 billion voted for the Police in the 2022 budget have grossly been cut to N18 billion.
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He explained that the House of Representatives under Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila, working in league with the Ahmed Lawan-led Senate, have been working assiduously towards overcoming the security challenges facing the country.
According to him, tinkering with the Police budget going into the election year has become so worrisome considering the build-up of tension fuelled by politics in the country.
‘The 9th National Assembly has been the most-friendly parliament in view of many people-oriented legislative interventions,’ he noted, and listed areas of interventions to include the Police Act enacted to enhance the reforms in the policing system.
According to him, the capital vote for the Police used to be within the region of N11billion before the National Assembly raised it to N28billion, regretting why the budget department slashed it to N18 billion in the current budget and urged the Police management to effectively utilised the funds to address internal security issues in the country.
In the same vein, his counterpart at the Senate in-charge of the Police Affairs Committee, Senator Haliru Jika, who represented the Senate President, Dr. Ahmad Lawan, said the National Assembly has undertaken series of legislative actions strengthen the Police’s security architecture in the country.
He mentioned areas of interventions to include the Police Academy, the Nigeria Police Trust Fund and other reform measures to enhance internal security arrangements in the polity.
Jika, therefore, charged the Police authorities to introduce new strategies including the deployment of technology in crime fighting working with sister security agencies for a holistic action plan against the insurgents.
