Police ministry can’t function well with current budgetary allocation – Minister

The Minister of Police Affairs, Mohammed Dingyadi has cried out over inadequate budgetary allocation to his ministry for the 2023 fiscal year.

Dingyadi, who stated this during a joint budget hearing of the agencies by the committees on Police, chaired by Senator Halliru Jika and Rep Bello Kumo, said out of the total budget of N871 billion earmarked for the ministry and its agencies, only N3 billion was earmarked for the ministry.

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He said the Nigerian Police Force and the Nigerian Police Trust fund got N805 billion and N57 billion respectively.

He said despite the outcry he made over poor allocation to the ministry in the 2022 budget, there was no significant improvement in the 2023 budgetary provisions.

The minister also decried the sum of N5 billion allocated to the Police Academy Wudil, describing it as inadequate.

He said for the ministry to carry out its mandate of ensuring adequate security of lives and property, there was a need for its budget to be increased.

On the 2022 budget performance, the Minister said the N1.7 billion released capital funds have largely been utilized to carry out critical programmes while procurement processes for capital projects were still ongoing.

“It is therefore obvious from the foregoing that for the ministry to carry out its mandate of ensuring adequate security of lives and property in Nigeria, the provisions proposed for this task in the year 2023, particularly for the main ministry and police Academy Wudil are considered inadequate,” he said.