House Committee Split on N6bn Interior Ministry’s Special Intervention Budget

Abdulrahman Dambazzau 

• Police say N4.5bn overhead budget grossly inadequate

Damilola Oyedele in Abuja 

Members of the House of Representatives Committee on Police Affairs were wednesday divided over a N6

billion budget tagged Special Intervention Fund, in the 2016 appropriation for the Ministry of Interior.

The Minister of Interior, General Abdulrahman Dambazzau (rtd),  told the committee during the budget defence for the police that the funds would be domiciled in the ministry so that the police and other paramilitary agencies could draw from it when funding is urgently required.

He explained that interventions for the police to restore civil authority in the North-east would be from the fund.

Some of the committee members however disagreed that such huge amount be set aside ‘idly’, when the needs of the police and other paramilitary agencies can be identified for allocations to be made to fulfill such needs.

Others however argued that the money can be used for emergency funding probably to tackle criminal  hotspots.

Hon. Jonathan Gbewfi (Nassarawa PDP) said the interventions for the police such as addressing the infrastructural deficit in North-east can be addressed in the budget of the police itself.

“Is it not duplicate? The police already know what they need and it is in their budget. This country no longer has the resources to keep some funds laying idle somewhere. We can appropriate for their needs in their own budget. We cannot appropriate N6 billion somewhere a breakdown for how it would be spent,” he said.

Hon. Gabriel Onyenwife (Anambra APGA) agreed, and added that the plan would create unnecessary bureaucratic bottlenecks before the funds can be accessed.

Hon. Prestige Ossy (Abia PDP) also argued against the fund.

“The police know their emergencies,  their hotspots and infrastructure deficit. They should take care of what they need, appropriate the funds to them,” he said.

Hon. Ayo Omidiran (Osun APC) however noted that the funds can be urgently channelled to wherever it is needed for security issues.
“The money is there for a purpose...if police needs it, it would be given to them, if prison needs it, it should be given to them,” she said.

Chairman of the Committee, Hon. Halliru Jika, also spoke in favour of the fund, explaining that it would assist infrastructure development and create a synergy between the police and the ministry.

As the discussion heated up, Jika ruled that the matter would be decided “in the executive session.”

The Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Mr. Bassey Ekpenyong, made a passionate appeal for approval for the fund which he likened to a rainy day fund.

“For instance, a few years ago we never knew we would have such a situation in the North-east. The police has lost everything in the region, and if we are to rely on their regular budgets, not much would happen,” he said.

“It is the same issue when governors were asked to set aside money for the rainy day, and they said the rainy day is already here. Today its the North-east, tomorrow its another region...we cannot discountenance checks and balances,” Ekpenyong argued.

Meanwhile the Inspector General of Police (IG), Solomon Arase, has warned that the N4.5 billion appropriated for the force, instead of the N18 billion estimate submitted to the budget office, can only last for a few months.

He also noted that N331 billion submitted for capital budget was the outcome of zero based budgeting lamenting that only N17 billion was allocated.

“The police have serious infrastructure deficit, which impacts on performance of officers, most of the schools where we want to train the 10,000 new recruits are in very bad shape. Most of our buildings are an eyesore, even our barracks in Garki, Abuja,” Arase added.

The IG also noted that the police would embark on a sort of peacekeeping mission in the North-east, and had already procured several necessities for deployment of its men.

“We have a moral obligation to pay the allowances of those that would be deployed, at least N1000 a day. If we don’t take care of their welfare, they will engage in unprofessional conduct inimical to the development of this country...we cannot do that from the N4.5 billion,” Arase said.