Kayode Egbetokun, the Inspector General of Police, stated that at least four patrol vehicles are needed for each of the 1,537 divisional police headquarters nationwide.
Egbetokun who made an appearance before the House of Representatives on Tuesday, highlighted poor funding and insufficient manpower as key challenges confronting the Nigeria Police Force.
Egbetokun said, “The police also find themselves operating in a very difficult environment. The manpower in the police today is grossly inadequate. Even the criminals know that. The United Nations ratio of 1 to 400 is not attainable in Nigeria as of today. Because the ratio in Nigeria is one to 1,000, which suggests that we have to double the manpower.
“We have 1,537 police divisional headquarters across 774 local government areas. But getting operational vehicles for the divisions is difficult. Each of these divisions requires at least four functional patrol vehicles. But we have divisions which don’t have any patrol vehicles as of today.
During his presentation at the National Assembly, the IG harped on the need for more funding for the police.
“No agency can perform with limited resources available to it. In the last five months, we have made a lot of arrests. We have made a lot of recovery of illicit weapons. Some of these suspects are undergoing prosecution as we speak. But no amount of arrests that we make will solve our security problem. Today, we make arrests of 100, and tomorrow 200 criminals are coming out,” he saod.
According to findings by The Punch, a brand new Toyota Hilux V6 costs at least N40m. This puts the cost of purchasing 6,148 (1537 × 4) of these vehicles at N245,920,000,000.
Source: Punch
