A former Commissioner of Police in Lagos and Benue States, Mr Fatai Owoseni, has disclosed that what an average police station in Nigeria gets as allocation per quarter for its operations is not more than N30,000, amounting to N10,000 a month.
Mr Owoseni, who retired from the police force in December 2018, made this disclosure in the early hours of Monday, February 25, 2019.
The retired cop was a guest on Channels Television’s popular election programme, The Verdict, which was monitored by TNG
Speaking on the pathetic nature of things at the security agency, the former Commissioner said the poor funding has made it impossible for the police to perform well like they do when on foreign missions.
“What an average police station receive as allocation is not more than N30,000 per quarter. How do you want them to perform excellently well?” he asked on the programme.
“Yes, I was a Commissioner of Police in Lagos and before then, I was in the Operations at the Force Headquarters and I know how the funding of the police is.
“Sometimes, the N30,000 allocation for the first quarter of the year may not come until the third quarter; that is the condition the police operates under.
“Let me make it clear that this is not a case of the Inspector General of Police (IGP) embezzling the money, but it is what is allocated to the police by the government.
“When you take what is budgeted to the Force to the police stations in the country, what gets to each is just too small to work with.
“This is making enforcement of law very difficult in the country. Nigeria is the most difficult place in the world to enforce any law. I want anybody to challenge me on this.
“When it comes to investigation and prosecution of cases in this country, the police spends a lot of time to investigate a case and when it comes to prosecution, because the law says you must prove beyond reasonable doubt, your key witness will run away and when your principal witnesses are not available, there is nothing much a policeman can do,” the former police chief said.
