Senate rejects Police budget over ‘inaccurate’ personnel figure

The Senate has said the documents supplied by the Nigeria Police Force during the budget defence did not indicate that the NPF had an accurate figure of its personnel.

The revelation, according to the official twitter handle of the red chamber, @NGRSenate, was made known by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Police Affairs, Senator Haliru Jika.

 Jika spoke while presenting the report of his committee to the Senate Committee on Appropriation.

 He told the Chairman of the appropriation committee, Senator Barau Jibrin, that the confusion made his panel members to have a meeting with the Chairman, Police Service Commission, Musiliu Smith.

He said the panel also held meetings with the representatives of the accountant general of the federation and the minister of police affairs.

Smith, according to the report, was said to have told the lawmakers that the Nigeria Police Force headquarters was in a better place to say the exact figures of its personnel.

 The report added that the Minister of Police Affairs, Mohammed Dingyadi, told the Senate panel that the recruits were not on the police payroll.

 He said that as students, they would only be qualified to be on the payroll after their training.

Jibrin, the report added, expressed dissatisfaction, saying, “If the lawmakers conducted an investigation, it will be discovered that all figures provided by the police will not be correct.”