The Nigeria Police Force has yet to provide adequate patrol vehicles and two-way radios for most of its personnel despite receiving N58.9 billion for capital projects in six years.

Analysis of the police budgets from 2015 to 2020 indicates that the force proposed N115.8billion for capital projects while N58.9billion was released by the Federal Government.

Items in the capital budget include security equipment, air navigational equipment, vehicles and trucks, industrial equipment, books, police stations, barracks, rehabilitation of residential and office buildings, aerodromes, and medical equipment.

In 2020, capital appropriation was N14.2billion but the amount released was N12.billion. In 2019, the police received a N6.3billion capital vote out of the proposed N22,064,903 while N11.9billion was released out of the N25.1billion allocated in 2018.

In 2017, N9,099,136,000 was said to have been released out of the N20.1billion proposed for capital projects while N10, 026,818,000 was released out of the capital allocation of N16.1billion in 2016.

The NPF reportedly got N8.9billion out of N17.8billion proposed in its 2015 budget.

Though the Ministry of Police Affairs allocated N20 million for the provision of two-way radios and security solutions for the police in its 2020 appropriation, there was no evidence that the gadgets were supplied.

Investigation revealed that the police commands and formations had a budget of N2,037,820,626, 202 out of the N7,786,923,450,732 allocated for national security between 2015 and 2020 by the government.

Police officers, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of sanction, said only senior officers were given two-way radios, adding that policemen on patrol depended on their mobile phones to communicate with their superiors.

This situation, it was gathered, had endangered many police officers who were sometimes unable to call for reinforcement while under attack due to a lack of standard police communication gadgets.

A sergeant, who spoke with our correspondent on Wednesday, said only three officers have walkie-talkies in his department, out of the 12 policemen in the unit.

The traffic officer said, “In our department, only three men have communication radios out of the 12 men in the unit. They are the Division’s Traffic Officer, the Deputy and an Inspector.

“The other nine officers depend on cell phones to communicate with their superiors. And this is the situation in nearly all police stations and formations across the country.”

Policemen on street patrol bemoaned the lack of infrastructure, particularly, vehicles, radios, bullet-proof vests, and other accoutrements as investigations showed that most of them do not wear bullet-proof vests or body armour while on duty.

Checks revealed that many police vehicles are in terrible shape due to the inability of the force to replace them on account of poor funding by the Federal Government.

In the Federal Capital Territory, scores of broken-down vehicles have been abandoned at various locations in Area 1, Garki and a compound located in Idu Industrial Estate, Mbora District.

Research by a civil society organisation, Dataphyte, showed that the N3.5 billion budgeted for “fuel/diesel/lubricant for direct delivery to state commands” in the 2021 supplementary budget could only provide less than 12 litres of fuel daily for each of the estimated 5,556 police stations across the country.

This means each police station, regardless of its operational size, would have less than N2,000 a day to fuel their operational vehicles, besides the cost of lubricants and other maintenance costs.

The spokesman, Ministry of Police Affairs, Bolaji Kareem, explained that the vehicles provided for the police were equipped with communication gadgets.

When asked about the number of police radios supplied to the police with the N20million in the ministry’s budget, he pleaded for time to find out.

He said, “Recently, the government procured some equipment for the police and most of their vehicles are equipped with walkie-talkies and other communication gadgets. But why not call the force public relations officer for more information to your question since it is an operational issue?”

The force spokesman, Frank Mba, could not be reached on Thursday as he did not respond to questions sent to his phone.

The Commissioner representing the media in the Police Service Commission, Austin Braimoh, lamented that many police vehicles were being allocated to the homes of ministers and other top government officials, adding that Nigerians should be more concerned about police welfare.

He said, “Go to a police station and see if they have vehicles. What is their response rate? Go to any of the police divisions, ask the officers the number of vehicles they have.

“Even when new vehicles are supplied, they are taken over by officers and some are being attached to ministers, to guard people in government. The vehicles are not given to those who guard you; they are allocated to the houses of top people in government.”