The Chairman, Police Service Commission, Mike Okiro, has lamented the high number of policemen in private hands in the country.
In an interview with NAN on Sunday, he said that as many as 150,000 policemen were attached to Very Important Personalities (VIPs) and unauthorised persons.
The former Inspector General of Police said, “We cannot afford to have more than half of the population of the Police in private hands.”
Also, Okiro lamented the perennial underfunding of the police force in the country, saying it was affecting the service delivery of the police.
He said that more than the nation’s entire budget is required “to police Nigeria as it should be”.
The retired police officer further stated that underfunding and lack of manpower had negatively affected the performance of the police, noting that inadequate funding had made it impossible to engage more police officers to improve the function of the police.
He said, “The Nigeria Police Force is underfunded and not only in the area of manpower.
“The issue of funding is very strategic to the Nigeria Police Force. If you want to police Nigeria as it should be, the entire budget of Nigeria cannot be enough for that.”
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