In the wake of protests against police brutality in states across the country, agitations from many Nigerians suggest that policemen in the country are poorly trained, despite the Nigeria Police Force budgeting over N2.8bn between 2015 and 2020 for local and international training for its personnel.
Checkout Magazine learnt that the police budget included trainings for officers of the recently dissolved Special Anti-Robbery Squad.
The Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, on October 11, announced the disbandment of SARS following agitations for its dissolution, as many alleged the police unit subjected people, especially the youth, to harassment and brutality.
Meanwhile, documents on the website of the Budget Office of the Federation revealed that the amount budgeted by the police for local and international training of personnel in 2015, 2018, 2019 and 2020 totalled N2,833,674,510.
A sum of N1,444,348,560 comprising local training – N1,025,877,847; local travel and transport training – N268,352,974; international travel and transport training – N150,117,739, has however been similarly budgeted for in the 2021 Appropriation Bill, currently before the National Assembly for approval.
The training expenditure for 2016 and 2017 were not reflected in the documents on the website, but in 2015, the police budgeted N489,210,100 for local and international training of personnel, including the cost of transportation.
In 2018, N788,667,088 was budgeted for the training while in 2019 and 2020, the cost was N777,898,661 respectively. The total for the four years amounted to N2,833,674,510.
