President Goodluck Jonathan Tuesday set up a committee to
probe all monies received by the police, either through donations or
appropriation for renovation and upgrade of its training institutions from 2009
to 2012.
The setting up of the committee came
on the heels of the president’s visit last Friday to the Police College, Ikeja,
which is in a state of decay because of prolonged neglect by successive
administration.
It also coincided with a meeting in
Abuja between the Minister of Police Affairs, Navy Captain Caleb Olubolade
(rtd), and Inspector General of Police (IG), Mr. Mohammed Abubakar, over the
state of police training institutions.
The establishment of the committee
and the president’s visit to the 73-year-old institution are the fallout of the
footage of a documentary aired by Channels Television last week to draw
attention to the decay in the college.
A statement from the presidency said
the 11-member committee will be chaired by the Director, Special Duties with a
representative of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) as vice-chairman.
Other members of the committee, which
has until January 29 to submit its report are: Director, Finance and Accounts;
Director, PID; Director, PSD; three representatives of NPF, legal adviser, Head
of Budget Division, Head of Internal Audit, Head of External Audit and
Secretary PRS.
The committee, among other terms of
reference, will ascertain the amount of funds appropriated by the Federal
Government to the police for the renovation/upgrade of its training
institutions between 2009 and 2012 and total donations received during the
period.
It will also examine the budget
proposed/appropriated to the NPF for the institutions between 2009 and 2012 as
well as verify the utilisation of the funds.
As part of the efforts to redress the
situation at the police colleges, Olubolade met with the IG and other top
police officers on how to find immediate solutions to the lapses that led to
the neglect of the training institutions.
Answering reporters’ questions after
the meeting, the minister said: “I’m here to follow up and interact with the IG
and his management team to look at the lapses that may exist and how to
surmount it because it is a joint effort and I think it is critical to do that.
“Ordinarily, I would have called this
meeting at the ministry but once I have a management team with them, sometimes
I like to do less stretching and come around and see progress, and he (IG) is
making some progress in certain areas. I will also want to have a look at
them.”
The minister pledged the government’s
commitment to reposition the NPF, adding that the government was working round
the clock to address every issue that had to do with the optimum performance of
the police.
On his visit to the Presidential Villa
on Monday, he said: “I went to the presidency to see the Chief of Staff and
that is a regular routine thing that we do because Mr. President is also
away.
“I also made a similar visit to the
vice-president’s office, so that at both ends if there are issues that pertain
to the police, I would like to know and hear about it.”
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Politics