The Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, On Thursday, November 17 said that a police station in Nigeria receives N45, 000 in three months as running cost.
Owoseni state this while addressing members of the Human Rights Defenders and Advocacy Centre, a civil society organisation, who stormed his office in Ikeja, capital of the state – during a protest.
The protesting group had called on the Federal Government to probe the embezzlement of funds meant for fuelling of patrol vehicles, stationery, uniforms and allowance for the Nigerian Police Force.
They were armed with 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’.
In his statement to the protesters, Owoseni said that the group was protesting on the basis of ignorance as police fund was not embezzled.
He pleaded with the protesters not to blame the government 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.”