Trust fund will boost funding of police – IGP

The Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, says full implementation of the Nigeria Police Trust Fund will significantly mitigate the challenge of poor funding of the Force.

It was reported that Adamu said this in Ibadan on Tuesday at the 2019 Town Talk Lecture organised by the Alumni Association of the University of Ibadan.

Adamu, who was represented at the event by the Deputy Inspector General of Police in charge of Training and Operations, Peter Ogunyanwo, spoke on ” Security and Protection System: The Challenges of Policing in Nigeria.”

He said poor funding, manpower shortage, inferior fire power and inadequate technology among other challenges needed to be addressed.

Adamu, however, commended the present administration for striving to mitigate the challenges as well as the ingenuity of the leadership of the force.

He said: “When reasonable funds are made available to the force through the trust fund, the challenges of logistics deficit, poor training and poor condition of service of police officers would be adequately addressed.

“The presidential approval of yearly recruitment of 10,000 police officers for five consecutive years, if religiously followed through, would help in bridging the manpower gap.

“Also, the adoption of technical intelligence-led policing by the current police leadership has improved criminal information sourcing and processing by the Nigeria Police Force.

“It has enhanced the capacity of the police to undertake special and intelligence-led operations targeted at the hub of criminal elements.

“No nation can do policing the manual way and get results. Policing is now technologically driven and we need to be abreast of these technologies and also deploy them to have results.”

Adamu, however, urged citizens to be alive to their responsibility as enshrined in the 1999 constitution.

In his address, Prof. Idowu Olayinka, the Vice Chancellor of University of Ibadan, said the topic of the lecture was apt as it would address some of the challenges in Nigeria’s security sector.