“If we decide to spend the allocation only on petrol, the money wouldn’t last more than three days. So, where do we get the money to make up for the huge shortfalls? Am I in the position to tell policemen who incessantly complain of poor salaries to donate money to run the affairs of the station?”
In Lagos, the Lagos State Security Trust Fund, a public-private partnership established by law in 2007, has been useful in this regard. The LSSTF intervention ranges from acquisition of police equipment, purchasing of patrol vehicles and their maintenance.
However, a senior police officer in the state explains that patrol vehicles whose maintenance bill is footed by the LSSTF are those attached to the Rapid Response Squad, noting that other vehicles in police divisions are left in care of DPOs to maintain from the quarterly allocation.
The police officer explains that the quarterly allocation given to police stations in the state is between N45, 000 and N80, 000, depending on the size of the police station and the crime wave in the area the station is situated.
He adds, “Police funding is a problematic issue and there is no way the police will perform magic with the way we are being funded. For my division, I get an allocation of N45, 000 quarterly. Just tell me what that money can cover out of the needs of the station for a total of 90 days?.
“Apart from fuelling of patrol vehicles and generators to power the police station, we incur expenses on stationeries. This is especially because the police are not ICT-compliant. As a result, we often beg for assistance from members of the public.’’
According to investigations, DPOs are usually in the habit of holding save-our-souls meeting with the members of the community in their jurisdiction to solicit for help to run the affairs of the station.
In such meetings, it was gathered, community development associations, owners of small businesses, among others, usually take up one or two responsibilities of catering for the needs of such police stations.
One of the DPOs in Lagos State Police Command told our correspondent that when he assumed office, in one of such meetings, he begged the stakeholders in the community who raised money to buy blocks, pay for the labour costs as well as foot the bill for fixing a gate around the station’s fence.
He says, “For you to succeed as a DPO there is no way you won’t live your life as if you are a beggar because money won’t be forthcoming from the top to make ends meet. And who are you to ask questions? When you are invited to a meeting with your boss, maybe at the Area Commander or Commissioner of Police, and issues bordering on finance come up, the best you can do is to say ‘yes sir, I’ll manage, sir.
“When I resumed at my duty post I specifically made the areas of needs of the station known to the various stakeholders in the community. At the end of the day, some private citizens and managers of firms were the ones who erected the fence of the station.”
He adds that after much persuasion, two managers of the petrol stations in the area had been providing the station with 50 liters of petrol per week. The Officer in Charge of Patrol and Guard goes around taking delivery of the fuel every Monday.
“And when the fuel finishes, the boys know how to go about getting the patrol vehicle re-fuelled because the work has to be done,” he adds.
A source in Akwa Ibom State Police Command explains that the situation is not different from other state commands. He however notes that the local government chairmen provide some monthly allowances to support police stations in their domains.
Also, a police source adds that the case of many states in the northern part of the country is usually worsened by the presence of many police posts under police divisions.
Another source at the Police Force Headquarters says the Police Public Relations Officers in the various state commands are worse off as their offices are not entitled to any allocations from the Force Headquarters.
The source adds that the PPROs in the various commands live at the mercy of the commissioners of police in their respective states.
The source notes, “The IG is just trying to work around something and find a way of including that office in the scheme of things to function appropriately. What about officers who get transferred to new police commands? The allowance they are entitled to in lieu of accommodation at that new desk for 30 days is not often even paid.
“Nigerian police officers and men are suffering in silence and yet we are expected to perform some magic. There are no two ways to it: The Federal Government and the National Assembly should commit more funds to the police for effective policing of the country.”
When contacted, the acting Force Public Relations Officer, Mr. Frank Mba, a Chief Superintendent of Police, confirmed the plight of the DPOs across the country.
According to him, the challenges are not peculiar to one particular state stressing that the state of police stations across the country are pathetic.
He adds that the Force Headquarters is constrained and cannot fund the various police divisions, area commands and state commands appropriately because, “we cannot give what we don’t have.”
Mba advises officers and men of the Nigeria Police to do everything “humanly possible,” to do the job well despite the “challenges and constraints”.
July 24, 2017, 01:03:09 AM