Senate to consider direct funding for police

                             

The Senate will consider a Bill to push for direct funding for the police when it resumes, it was learnt yesterday.
                                                                         

The police special forces deployed to tame armed robbery and kidnapping on Kaduna-Abuja highway have been advised to take the fight to the criminals’ camps in the forests.

Chairman, Senate Committee on Police Affairs Senator Abu Ibrahim spoke yesterday during an assessment tour of Police deployment on the Kaduna-Abuja Expressway.

The senator, who was guided on the tour by Commissioner of Police Agyole Abeh, lamented what he described as low funding of police operations.

He, therefore, vowed that his committee will push for the adoption of a bill that will ensure that at least one per cent of the federal allocation is set aside for security operations of the police.

Ibrahim said a situation where police use funds meant for purchasing of equipment and welfare of its personnel for special operations is unacceptable.

Addressing officers and men of the force at the Katari Divisional Police Headquarters, which is being used as the operational base of Operation Absolute Sanity, the senator said welfare of officers and men of the force will become a paramount issue to be discussed in the upper chamber when it resumes.

He added that his committee will soon take a tour of six states of Nassarawa, Kano, Kaduna, Niger, Kogi, Zamfara and Katsina to solicit the states commitment to the security operations around their state, by providing funds to assist the operations.

Abeh said the officers and men of the special forces are the best brains in the Police Force because of the series of trainings they have undergone.

He, therefore, assured that with proper equipment and welfare, they will comb the forests and rid Kaduna-Abuja highway of kidnappers.