An assistant commissioner of police and head of the Nigerian Police’s Intelligence Response Team (IRT) Abba Kyari has decried the poor funding of the force.
Kyari, famous for leading the team that arrested the alleged notorious kidnapper Chukwudi Onuamadike, aka Evans, said Nigerian police officers were poorly paid and only have access to “less than 20 per cent” of what they need to operate properly.
“Google and read about the funding of Nigeria Police and salaries, we physically get less than 20 per cent of what we need to operate properly,” Kyari said in the comment section of a Facebook post he put up to mourn the death of a police sergeant who was killed by kidnappers.
According to Kyari, Sergeant Tom Mohammed was among the IRT officers that foiled a plan to kidnap an expatriate in Nasarawa State.
While absolving the current Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, of any blame, the assistant commissioner of police pointed out that police officers in countries such as the Republic of Benin, Kenya and Colombia, all of which are poorer than Nigeria, are better paid.
“Everything is done by managing and out of personal sacrifice and selflessness of some officers notwithstanding that we have an IGP that is not corrupt and have wellfare (sic) of men at heart but Government have not given him enough funds to operate and that has being (sic) the case for over 3 decades since President Shehu Shagari regime of the 80s where the police was well funded.
“If we would be given half of what we need or even half of what the police in other countries are given to run their operations and take care of their personnel Wellfare(sic) u will see wonders. A policeman in Colombia (a country not richer than us) is paid more than 4 times what his equivalent in the Nigerian Police earns not to talk of proper funding of their police operations because I was there September last year and I saw it first-hand, policemen in the Benin Republic, Kenya etc are paid better than Naija Police.”
Kyari, however, expressed optimism that the welfare of Nigerian police officers would improve the moment the Police Trust Fund Bill before the National Assembly is passed into law.
