Insecurity: Our Manpower Grossly Inadequate – IG

The Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, has said at least four patrol vehicles were needed in each of the 1,537 divisional police headquarters across the country.

Appearing before the House of Representatives, the IG identified poor funding and inadequate manpower as some of the challenges facing the Nigeria Police Force.

Egbetokun said, “The police also find themselves operating in a very difficult environment. The manpower in the police today is grossly inadequate. Even the criminals know that.

“The United Nations ratio of 1 to 400 is not attainable in Nigeria as of today. Because the ratio in Nigeria is one to 1,000, which suggests that we have to double the manpower.

“We have 1,537 police divisional headquarters across 774 local government areas. But getting operational vehicles for the divisions is difficult. Each of these divisions requires at least four functional patrol vehicles. But we have divisions which don’t have any patrol vehicles as of today.”

Egbetokun harped on the need for more funding for the police.

“No agency can perform with limited resources available to it. In the last five months, we have made a lot of arrests. We have made a lot of recovery of illicit weapons. Some of these suspects are undergoing prosecution as we speak. But no amount of arrests that we make will solve our security problem. Today, we make arrests of 100, and tomorrow 200 criminals are coming out,” he said.