Senate rejects police budget over ‘inaccurate’ personnel figure

The Senate has said the documents supplied by the Nigeria Police
Force during the budget defence did not indicate that the NPF had
an accurate figure of its personnel.

The revelation, according to the official twitter handle of the
red chamber, @NGRSenate, was made known by the Chairman, Senate
Committee on Police Affairs, Senator Haliru Jika.

Jika spoke while presenting the report of his committee to the
Senate Committee on Appropriation.

He told the Chairman of the appropriation committee, Senator
Barau Jibrin, that the confusion made his panel members to have a
meeting with the Chairman, Police Service Commission, Musiliu
Smith.

He said the panel also held meetings with the representatives of
the accountant general of the federation and the minister of police
affairs.

Smith, according to the report, was said to have told the
lawmakers that the Nigeria Police Force headquarters was in a
better place to say the exact figures of its personnel.

The report added that the Minister of Police Affairs, Mohammed
Dingyadi, told the Senate panel that the recruits were not on the
police payroll.

He said that as students, they would only be qualified to be on
the payroll after their training.

Jibrin, the report added, expressed dissatisfaction, saying, “If
the lawmakers conducted an investigation, it will be discovered
that all figures provided by the police will not be correct.”