By Joy Odor
The Senate Committee on Police Affairs has affirmed its commitment to give the 2025 budget proposal of the Nigeria Police Trust Fund (NPTF) an accelerated legislative process to ensure its broad passage and transmission for implementation.
The Chairman of the Committee, Senator Abdulhamid Mallam-Madori Ahmed at the press briefing shortly after the meeting on Wednesday maintained its readiness to support the NPTF and the Ministry of Police Affairs through appropriate legislative interventions whenever and wherever the need arises.
He informed that Distinguished colleagues and invited guests, it is important to recall that the statutory mandate of the NPTF is to support the development of a well-trained, well-equipped and highly motivated Nigeria police force capable of providing the security the nation urgently requires and enhances their preparedness to effectively discharge their duties of protecting the lives and property of the people of Nigeria.
The Lawmaker explained that the committee’s review of the budget proposal comes as the NPTF faces financial challenges, including ongoing litigations that have resulted in funds being tied up.
Senator Ahmed lauded the NPTF ES for his effective leadership, good work and achievements within a short period even though he is new in the agency.
“Against this background, I encourage everyone present to actively participate by sharing their thoughts and insight which will assist the Committee in ensuring that the budget adequately addresses the security challenges before us.
“Without taking much of our time, I would like to remind us all that the security of lives and property is a shared responsibility.
“To this end, the committee is committed to giving this budget an accelerated legislative process to ensure its broad passage and transmission for implementation.
“I am confident that we will have productive and effective deliberations that will strengthen the Nigerian police force in addressing the present security challenges facing our country.
“For these affairs of the Senate’s outlook into their budget we have discussed thoroughly, we made our observations of areas, we commended the leadership of the Executive Secretary of the Police Trust Fund for the good work he is doing even though he is new in the agency but what he has done within this short period of time is commendable.
“So we have looked at the budget and we agree that definitely the budget should be invested to recommend to the Senate the passage of their budget to allow them to proceed with the implementation of what they have budgeted.
“We are comfortable even though there are a lot of issues which we have raised and we are working very hard within our Committee to see that not only our Committee even with the intervention of the Senate to see how we can assist the agency to recover most of the money” he noted.
In his response, the Executive Secretary (ES) of the NPTF, Mohammed Sheidu who acknowledged the litigations and funding constraints called for strategic partnerships to overcome funding shortfalls which is to help the Nigerian police force perform their functions better.
According to Sheidu, the Committee’s support is crucial in addressing the challenges facing the Nigerian Police Force and enhancing the security of the country.
“Chairman, as you just mentioned, we have a litigation which we are currently looking at with the Attorney General and hopefully now the distinguished members are here, saying how they are going to get rid of the case and Fund.
“As Chairman has just mentioned, will be able to proceed so that we can carry out our mandates and do this better. One of the first things we looked at are based on the funding constraints that we have, how we can have strategic partnerships and alliances with sisters or other agencies that can help us because we still do not have our revenues and are not coming from our job agencies.
“So we looked into different agencies to see how we can actually partner with them to be able to also achieve this mandate.
“So one of the things we’re looking at is not just looking at the federal allocation which we’re having on streams and all, but how we can partner with other government agencies to see how we can still achieve this mandate of providing our welfare infrastructure and training for the government jobs force” he stressed.
