PSC chair: Successful police reforms require huge funding

PSC Chairman, Musiliu Smith

The Chairman of the Police Service Commission, Alhaji Musiliu Smith, has called for adequate funding for the Nigeria Police Force to ensure a successful police reforms in the country.

Smith made the call while receiving the European Union delegation to Nigeria and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) recently in his office in Abuja.

According to a statement made available to The Star on Thursday by the PSC spokesperson, Ikechukwu Ani, the delegation, Police Expert Mission, led by Hendrickson Dyean was in the Police Service Commission headquarters to find out how the Commission, with its oversight Constitutional responsibility over the police, was making inputs into the Presidential Police Reform Roadmap and how donors could also support the programme.

The PSC Chairman added that adequate funding of the police as well as the Police Service Commission, the statutory civilian oversight body on the Nigeria Police Force would make the police more efficient and effective.

Smith further stated that police reforms should also include training and retraining of officers, provision of decent and comfortable barrack accommodation, effective transportation, and provision of adequate quality weaponry.

He noted that it should also accommodate efficient and effective communication gadgets, uncompromising recruitment process, and good police/community relations, among others.

The PSC Chairman stressed that if all the requirements were put in place, crime prevention response rate by the police would be “swift, effective, and efficient”.

The EU leader, who was also in company of SSR expert, Spirlet Nevd-Angic, and Founder/Executive Director, Rule of Law and Empowerment Initiative, Kemi Okenyodo promised to continue to partner with the Commission and support its efforts in the Presidential Police Reform Roadmap to improve the capacity of the Nigeria Police Force in handling insecurity in the country.

The Star