11-man Panel To Probe Police Colleges’ Rot

The Federal Government yesterday set up an 11-man committee to probe the rot in Police Colleges.

The committee will also ascertain the amount of money appropriated for the police to renovate and upgrade the police institutions between 2009 and 2012.

Director, Special duties in the Police Affairs Ministry is the head of the probe team raised by Police Affairs Minister Omoniyi Olubolabe.

The committee has one week to submit its report.

President Goodluck Jonathan on Saturday visited the Police College in Lagos after Channels Television exposed the rot in the school.

Members of the committee are: Rep. of NPF-Vice Chairman, Director, Finance and Account-Member, Director, PID-Member, Director, PSD-Member, 3 Nos. Representatives of NPF-Member, Legal Adviser-Member, Head of Budget Division-Member, Head of Internal Audit-Member, Head of External Audit-Member and Secretary-PRS.

The committee’s term of reference are:

•To ascertain the amount of funds appropriated by the Federal Government of Nigeria to the NPF for renovations/upgrade of the Nigeria Police Institutions between 2009 and 2012 and total donations received in the period under review.

•To examine the budget proposed/appropriated by NPF for the Training Institutions between 2009 and 2012

•To verify the utilisation of the appropriation to the NPF for the upgrade of facilities in the following Police Training Institutions.

•Detective College Enugu;

•PMF Training Schools Gwoza and

•Illa Oragun, ATS Training School, Nonwa Tai;

•Police Colleges Ikeja, Kaduna, Maiduguri, Oji-River, PTS Iperu.

•To ascertain if the Heads of the NPF Formations were regularly updating the NPF Management on the conditions of the Institutions between 2009 – 2012 and what actions were taken by the Management of NPF sequel to such;

•To examine the design and capacity of the institutions vis-à-vis the current number of intakes;

•To examine the current condition of infrastructure in all the NPF training institutions and make appropriate recommendations to Government;

•To consider any other matter relevant.

Olubolade said his ministry and the police management team will address the rot in police colleges in the country without delay.

He spoke to reporters after a meeting with Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar at the Force Headquarters yesterday. ,The minister said the matter is of priority to the government.

Olubolade said the meeting with the IGP centred on how to fix the decay in police colleges and how to tackle the rising wave of terrorism, kidnapping and other criminal activities in the land.

The minister said: “We looked at the training of policemen and the training institutions not only on police colleges because solving the problem of police colleges alone is not enough.

“We will solve the problem of police colleges and that of other training institutions including the Police Academy in Kano as well as the Staff College in Jos.

“Once we address those issues, we will be making better progress. So, if you ask me, this meeting was aimed at repositioning the police to attend to training matters. To attend to operational matters so that this year, we will see a better policing in Nigeria police.”

“Nigerians should expect a highly professional police force that will stand up and face the challenges that are confronting our nation. And to do that, I have to constantly meet with the management team headed by the IGP who is here with me as many times as possible.

“This is to ensure that we are on course with our plan, to ensure that whatever we asked for to make the police force more efficient, is given to us. It is also to ensure that we are making progress in fighting crime, criminality and terrorism.

“Like I said, I am here to follow up on what I have just spoken about; to interact with the IGP and his management team, to look at lapses that may exist and how we will surmount them because it is a joint effort and I think it is critical to do that.

“The IGP is making some progress in certain areas and I will also have to look at them”.

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