A former federal lawmaker, Senator Binta Masi Garba, has alleged that someone she knows was asked to pay N3m to gain admission into the Nigeria Police Force Academy in Wudil, Kano State.
The ex-lawmaker, who represented Adamawa North Senatorial District from 2015 to 2019, was a guest on Inside Sources with Laolu Akande which aired on Channels Television on Friday.
According to her, the security challenges confronting the nation has many faces and one of the many reasons is that there is loss of credibility even in the process of recruiting and training of security agencies personnel.
Binta who is the first female to be a State Chairman for a major party is the former Chairperson of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Adamawa.
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According to her, “I’m one of the victims because Boko Haram took over my local government in Adamawa State, one of the five local governments from the northern part of Borno to Adamawa. I lost an uncle and so many of my relations were displaced.
“Something is wrong somewhere. I was shocked to my marrow that somebody that wants to go to school has to pay over three million naira to get admission into the Police Academy in Kano. They asked the person to pay three million naira.
“If you look at the qualifications of that person, that person should be awarded scholarship.
“If that person at the end of the day goes to school and he or she knows that he or she paid to get that admission, what would be the motive after school? So, credibility has been thrown into the mud.”
She said the way out of the insecurity in the country like kidnapping and banditry is for all hands to be on the deck, from the government’s side and the side of the people. She believed that corruption and compromises of all forms must be deterred to stamp out the cancer of insecurity.
Sen. Garba further stated that a lot of pressure is being placed on the Federal Government without taking cognizance of the state and local governments.
She disclosed the example of a local government that gets at least N2.5bn per month as allocation. “If you have N2.5bn in the local government, you won’t have the migrant level we have now,” she said, adding that “I remember we passed a legislation on local government autonomy”.
“Nigerians should ask what happened to local government funds. What happens to the N2.5bn minimum given to a local government in a month? If you have N2.5bn in a local government, the healthcare, security and education in the country will change but everybody is looking at the Federal Government,” she said.
On the over N160m used to buy SUV for each National Assembly member, she said, “When you have a parliamentarian and you are giving them responsibility, you need to see to their security and their wellbeing. There is no where in the world (where this is not done)… Not in the affluence angle but you need to secure the person given the responsibility.”
The ex-lawmaker lamented that the naira has lost its value as the funds which sound big when converted to foreign currency is small.
“People might think it is a waste but it is not a waste. At the end of the day, it is the government’s properties,” Garba asserted.
But she agreed with the host of the show, Inside Sources that the Senate ought to stick with the law that states that only non-partisan Nigerians ought to be confirmed as INEC Commissioners.
