NPTF was created by an Act of the National Assembly in 2019 to provide additional funding sources for the Nigeria Police
By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
Barely two years into the establishment of the Nigeria Police Trust Fund (NPTF), it is gradually becoming a problem than the solution it is designed to solve.
The NPTF was created by an Act of the National Assembly in 2019 to provide additional funding sources for the Nigeria Police.
The additional funding sources is supposed to come from a percentage of the profit of companies operating in Nigeria, interventions from states, federal and local governments, grants and foreign assistance and profits generated from investment of those funds
The Rule of Law, Accountability and Advocacy Centre (RULAAC), has been tracking the activities of the NPTF to ensure judicious use of the funds, especially in the light of police handicaps to protect citizens across the country.
In Imo State where policemen have been overwhelmed by the activities of gunmen who raid police stations and sometimes set them on fire, RULAAC deployed a team of researchers to assess the level of intervention the police authorities in the state may have received from the NPTF. The researchers said many of the police operatives were reluctant to speak because they considered issues of the NPTF budget as confidential or official secret. But a few who spoke on the condition of anonymity said no police formation in the South East, including Imo State, has benefited from the NPTF and dismissed the scheme as another ‘government bureaucracy’ and ‘politics.’
A possible reason for the lack of impact of the NPTF may be its own involvement in corruption issues, a plague that is hampering the operations of the Nigeria Police, which the NPTF was supposed to fix. For instance, RULAAC reported that as of October 2021, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) was still investigating the NPTF over alleged procurement of substandard equipment totalling N11 billion in breach of the Act establishing the NPTF, as well as the willful disregard of the recommendation of the KPMG report which clearly established the grounds for prudent management of the Trust Fund.”
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RULAAC quoted a ThisDay newspaper report, which listed some of the substandard equipment allegedly procured by the NPTF to include bulletproof vests which were expected to possess resistant shields on two sides but was only effective on one, therefore incapable of protecting police personnel from bullets piercing through their body.
The substandard equipment also included helmets and Toyota Buffalo vehicles which were also procured but fell far short of the required standard.
Chairman of the NPTF board, Suleiman Abba, a former Inspector General of Police, has disowned the sub-standard equipment, saying they were purchased without the knowledge of the board which he heads, according to a report in Vanguard Newspaper.
The NPTF is headed by an executive secretary, Alhaji Ahmad Aliyu Sokoto, who has been locked in a supremacy battle with Abba, the chairman of the board. The in-fighting has hampered the smooth operations of the fund, which makes the Nigeria Police the biggest loser.
Also, the African Centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL) in a letter dated October 6, 2021, addressed to the Chairman of the ICPC and reported by Premium Times called on the ICPC to show interest in investigating what the sum of N722.6 million out of the N1.6 billion released as takeoff grant of the secretariat of the Trust Fund was used for.
“This amount was said to have been spent within five months even as accommodation and other necessary equipment had been provided free by the Nigeria Police Force. A situation where the Executive Secretary conducts business without the consent of the Chairman of the Board of Trustees or, in collaboration with the Bureau of Public Procurement, literally usurps the powers of the Board in flagrant violation of Sections 11(b) and 12(1)a of NPTF Act 2019, is gross misconduct that should not be condoned by the ICPC and citizens who mean well for the police and our country,’’ AFRICMIL said.
RULAAC, on its part, says it will continue to lead civil society efforts in tracking the budget of the NPTF and to generally monitor the implementation of the NPTF Act to ensure transparency and accountability.
