A DIVISIONAL Police Officer (DPO) in Edo State has explained why effective community policing is difficult.
The DPO, who did not want to be quoted in the media, said he and his colleagues got N66,000 yearly imprest to run police divisions.
He said the amount is grossly inadequate.
Speaking at the annual leadership summit of the Leading Rights Ambassador Initiative (LRAI) in Benin, the Edo State capital, the police officer stressed that the budget of the Ministry of Interior would not be enough to fund police operations across the country.
He said: “How much is N66,000 for DPOs to spend annually? How do I run a full police division with N66,000?
“How do I buy fuel to pursue criminals? They don’t supply us uniforms. There is no money for case files. Why will such a system work until we change our attitude?
“We are still doing analogue policing. We manage to make do with what we have to fight criminals.”
LRAI President Donald Ojemeh Okogbe said the summit was meant to create an avenue for Nigerians to articulate issues affecting the country.
“We bring members together to analyse an issue about Nigeria as it affects leadership.
We project into the future and look at what we can do to make things better,” he said.
Okogbe stated that the outcome of such discussion is sent to government to help policy formulation.
