150,000 policemen attached to VIPs, unauthorised persons – PSC

The Police Service Commission (PSC), has said more than 150,000 policemen are attached to Very Important Persons (VIPs) and unauthourised persons in the country.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that President Muhammadu Buhari, in 2015, directed police personnel attached to unauthorised persons and VIPs in the country be withdrawn and deployed to confront the security challenges in the country.

Chairman of the commission, Mike Okiro, disclosed this in an interview with NAN, in Abuja, yesterday.

“We cannot afford to have more than half of the population of the police in private hands,” he said.

He added that the commission, in conjunction with the Nigeria Police Force, has commenced  implementation of the withdrawal of policemen but the exercise was stalled due to lack of funds.

“We could not sustain enforcement of the order on the withdrawal of policemen attached to unqualified persons in the country because of lack of funds,” he reiterated.

The former inspector general of police between 2007-2009 expressed disappointment at the practise where persons who served as ministers for over 10 to 15 years still go about with police security.

Okiro said the country cannot be battling with shortage of manpower in the Force while majority of these officers would be in the service of few privileged Nigerians.

The PSC chairman also said the number of policemen in the country are inadequate for the population, hence, the request for recruitment of more policemen and that paucity of funds is one of the problems hindering recruitment of more policemen for enhanced service delivery.

“The Nigeria police force is underfunded and not only in the area of manpower. The issue of funding is very strategic to the Nigeria police force.

“If you want to police Nigeria as it should be, the entire budget of Nigeria cannot be enough for that,” he said.

He said the Police Trust Fund Bill before the National Assembly, if passed into law, would go a long way to address the issue of funding for the police.