Almost half a billion naira was budgeted
for the upgrade and rehabilitation of facilities at police colleges
across the country in 2012, investigations by SUNDAY PUNCH have shown.
A breakdown of the N307bn budget of
police formations and commands, obtained from the Budget Office of the
Federation, Ministry of Finance, showed that N296.75m was budgeted for
the upgrade of facilities in the following police training institutions –
Detective College, Enugu State, PMF training schools, Gwoza (Borno
State) and Ila-Orangun (Osun), ATS Training School Nonwa-Tai, (Rivers)
Police colleges, Ikeja (Lagos), Kaduna, Maiduguri (Borno), Oji-River
(Enugu), PTS Iperu (Ogun), Ibadan (Oyo), Oyin-Akoko (Ondo), mounted
and dog training schools, communication training schools, Ikeja and
Kaduna.
Another N200m was budgeted for the rehabilitation of Police Intelligence College, Challawa, Kano State.
Besides the training institutions,
N462.3m was budgeted for the rehabilitation and repairs of police
stations and barracks across the country, while N142.1m was budgeted for
the establishment and deployment of integrated police management
information technology systems in police formations, commands and
training institutions.
Last week, President Goodluck Jonathan had visited the Police College, Ikeja, after Channels Television exposed the rot in the school.
As a result, the Federal Government last week set up an 11-man committee to probe the rot in police colleges.
Part of the committee’s work will be to
ascertain the amount of money appropriated for the police to renovate
and upgrade the police institutions between 2009 and 2012.
Director, special duties in the police
affairs ministry is the head of the probe team raised by Police Affairs
Minister, Caleb Olubolade.
The committee is expected to examine the
budget proposed and appropriated by NPF for training institutions
between 2009 and 2012 and to verify the utilisation of the appropriation
to the NPF for the upgrade of facilities in the following police
training institutions: Detective College, Enugu; PMF training schools
Gwoza and Illa Orangun; ATS Training School, Nonwa Tai; Police Colleges,
Ikeja, Kaduna, Maiduguri, Oji-River; and PTS Iperu.
The committee is also to ascertain if
the heads of the NPF formations were regularly updating the NPF
management on the conditions of the institutions between 2009 and 2012
and what actions were taken by the management of NPF; examine the design
and capacity of the institutions vis-à-vis the current number of
intakes and to also examine the current condition of infrastructure in
all the NPF training institutions and make appropriate recommendations
to the government.
The Executive Chairman of the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders, Debo Adeniran, told SUNDAY PUNCH
that the Police College, Ikeja and other colleges had remained in their
poor state because budgetary allocations over the years ended in the
pockets of individuals.
He said, “Even if they had budgeted N1bn
for the upgrade of facilities at the police colleges, it will still not
amount to anything because those in charge will divert the money into
their pockets. There is simply no accountability in the system.
“For several years, different amounts of
money have been budgeted for projects at those colleges but nobody has
monitored implementation. The National Assembly and the minister of
police affairs have not performed their oversight functions.”
When contacted the Deputy Force Public
Relations Officer, Frank Mba, said it was not in his capacity to comment
on such a matter.
“I comment only on routine operational and administrative matters,” he said.
However, a police source said not all the N496m budgeted for the police training schools was released to the institutions.
He said, “At the end of the day, each
of the colleges might not get more than N5m out of the money. The
general performance of the 2012 budget was around 40 per cent, and for
the police, which the government does not care for, one can be sure that
not up to 60 per cent of the N496m got to the institutions. That is the
problem.
“And to be realistic, even if all the money was released, it would still not be enough to effectively run the institutions.”
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