The Federal Government is set to allocate the sum of N447.6 billion to the Ministry of Police Affairs in 2021, if approved by the National Assembly.
This was disclosed by the government in the 2021 Appropriation Bill presented to the lawmakers last week Thursday.
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NPF’s allocation since 2018
The allocations of the government to the Nigeria Police Force have been on the increase in the last four years and the difference between the figures has been around N40 billion or more.
For instance, the 2021 proposed allocation increased to N447.6 billion from N403.45 billion allocated in 2020, which is about an 11% increase. That of 2020 also recorded an increase from N366.13 billion allocated to the force in 2019. This represents an increase of about 10%.
The difference between 2019 and 2018 allocations was over N42 billion when it increased from N324.2 billion (N366.13 billion in 2019).
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What you should know
The breakdown of the allocation to the police in the 2021 budget is
- N18.45 billion is for overhead expenses, N417.2 billion on personnel expenses, and N11.98 billion on capital expenses.
- N14.23 million is for the construction of MOPOL and SARS headquarters in Okpoko Ayamelum, Anambra State.
- N166.7 million is for Arms and Ammunition in 2021, at a time several Nigerians have called for an end to police brutality across the nation.
- The Police also plans to purchase riot controlling equipment worth N57.87 million and 1000 pieces of bulletproof vests worth N67.6 million.
- Procurement of educational materials and upgrade of training equipment worth N128.5 million across training institutions in the country.
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Should there be more protests, either by angry youths or other groups, it appears the police is prepared for 2021.
Backstory
The men of the force had lamented over what they described as underfunding of the Nigeria Police Force to the tune of about N1.1trillion between 2011 and 2015, which they argued weakened the capacity of the police to perform their duties and adequately improve the institution.
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Former Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Solomon Arase, had argued that neither the funding of the capital projects of the police nor the overheads had risen beyond N11 billion between 2011 and 2015, compared to actual funding requirements of up to N71 billion for overheads and N345.7 billion for capital projects in the case of 2015 for example.
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