Reps reject ‘inadequate’ police budget

The house of representatives has rejected the 2018 budget estimate of the Nigerian police force on the grounds that it is “inadequate.”

Appearing before the house committee on police affairs, on Wednesday, Ibrahim Idris, inspector-general of police, was asked to mop up the budget estimate to meet the required standards.

The N332 billion estimated budget comprises 10 percent for overhead and capital costs, and 90 per cenfor personnel costs.

The committee, chaired by Haliru Dauda Jika, described the proposed budget as inadequate and incapable of mitigating the nation’s security challenges.

Idris was asked by the committee to rework the budget so as to align with the multifaceted security challenges in the country.

In its 2017, the police had proposed N342 billion for capital expenditure, but only N20.19 billion was appropriated.

Of this amount, it was learnt that only N9.09 billion, representing 45 percent of the appropriation, has been released.

While the sum of N11.6 billion was appropriated as overhead cost, only N5.9 billion has reportedly been released.