Police Need Adequate Personnel, 250,000 Rifles, 774 Drones

Mohammed Adamu, the Inspector-General of Police, has said the Nigeria Police Force need about 1,000 armoured personnel carriers and 250,000 assault rifles with corresponding ammunition.

Other equipment the IG said the force required included 200,000 riot gunners and smoke pistols, 1,000 tracking devices, 2,000,000 tear gas canisters, smoke grenades, and 774 operational drones, among others.

Adamu disclosed this on Tuesday at a public hearing organised by the House of Representatives Committee on Police Affairs, tagged, ‘Repositioning the Nigeria Police for an Enhanced Service Delivery.

He also lamented that poor remuneration scared best and suitable applicants away from the police.

The IG, who was represented by the Deputy Inspector-General of Police (Operations), Abdulmajid Ali, stated that aggregation of reports by the various police reform committees highlighted the major challenges hindering an optimal service delivery by the police.

Ali, in a document presented, said the challenges included gross underfunding, which he said was caused by inadequate budgetary appropriation and non-release of the limited appropriated funds.

He noted that the budgetary system still remained the envelope system, which he said was not capable of taking care of neither the needs nor wants of the force.

“Ali explained that poor remuneration and welfare regime, which he said were not only de-motivating for officers, but were not attractive enough for the best and most suitable applicants for police jobs in Nigeria.

“In Kenya, for example, a police constable take-home earning is about 34,907 Shilling or N126,000, whereas his Nigerian counterpart earns unfortunately less than N50,000. Pitiably, this earning comes down to between N12,000 and N18,000 at retirement,” he said.

The DIG also said that paucity of funds had over the years made it impossible for an average police officer to be adequately trained and retrained for an enhanced service delivery.

He stated that improvement in this area would no doubt enhance professionalism in terms of weapon handling, investigation and human rights observance.

On operational equipment, Ali said, “The force needs to improve on its arsenal, as well as technology to combat cybercrime, insurgency and sundry crimes.

“Consequently, not less than 1,000 APCs, 250,000 assault rifles/corresponding ammunition, 2,000,000 tear gas canisters/smoke grenades 200,000 riot gunners and smoke pistols, 1,000 tracking devices, 774 operational drones, among others, (are needed) to cover the length and breadth of the nation.”