Follow Us on Google
From Magnus Eze, Enugu
The Commissioner representing the South East in the Police Service Commission (PSC), Chief Onyemuche Nnamani, has faulted the implementation of the Police Trust Fund (PTF).
He also called for emergency funding for the Nigeria Police Force, to enable it to withstand the devastating security challenges facing the country.
Nnamani, who spoke in Enugu on the heels of this year’s May Day celebrations, said emergency funding would engender a properly trained, equipped and motivated force to secure Nigerians.
He also called for a presidential approval for further recruitment of additional 20,000 young men and women every year, to avail the Force more manpower to contain the present security crisis in the country.
He bemoaned that the police’s strength has been grossly depleted and not enough to police a vast nation such as Nigeria, especially in the wake of various contending banditry and terror attacks in the country.
He said if it was a fact that “we have no more money to spend for the police, then the federal government should temporarily suspend some of the gigantic projects it has continued to approve funds for, every Wednesday, at its Federal Executive Council meetings, and re-channel such funds to empowering the police for effective and efficient policing.”
Nnamani stated that the security of lives and property in the country was needed before any meaningful development programme could succeed. “You have to secure the public space before any meaningful investment can thrive,” he noted.
He mentioned some of the projects recently approved at the FEC meetings which can wait, so as to release funds for the police to fight insecurity. Some of the projects, he said, are the N92.12 billion for the second Abuja Airport runway; N35 billion for aviation projects in eight states, and N75.78 billion contracts in the Federal Capital Territory and Transport Ministry, among others.
He specifically pointed out that it is ironic that funds are being committed to such projects when Nigerians cannot travel from Abuja to nearby Kaduna by road, and when it is obvious that even the airports and rail lines are no longer safe.
