THE Senate has proposed a development fund of N540 billion annually for the Nigeria Police to help in training and retraining of personnel of the force.
The fund is also to assist in the provision of equipment, offices and barracks accommodation.
According to the Senate, if the bill is finally passed into law, the fund will ensure that the needed facilities to enhance security service delivery of the Nigeria Police Force is achieved. Against this backdrop, the Senate has proposed 0.5 percent of the total revenue accruing to the Federation Account, totally N370 billion, to go to the development fund.
In his lead debate on the bill, which passed second reading yesterday, Chairman, Senate Committee on Police Affairs, Senator Abu Ibrahim, APC, Katsina South, said in the bill, there is a proposed amount on company income tax of five percent of N50 billion for the Police Fund as well as Cyber Security fund of 30 per cent that would amount to N120 billion for the proposed fund.
According to him, “it has become imperative to improve the funding of the police because, the entire N9,250,565,307 projected for all subheads in the overhead cost for police formations and commands in 2017 budget is not even enough to provide minimal fueling and maintenance cost for Police operational vehicles for five months.”
The Bill was referred to the Senate Committees on Police Affairs and that of Judiciary, Human Right and Legal Matters to report back in four weeks.