The operatives of the Lagos State Police Command have arrested two suspected fraudsters for duping a 64-year-old woman to the tune of N690,000 and threatening to kill her.
According to the spokesperson for the command, Benjamin Hundeyin, the command got an alert from a bank cashier who noticed that her customer was unsettled while trying to make a withdrawal of N600,000 after previously giving the suspects N90,0000.
Hundeyin tweeted on his verified handle, “On Friday, at about 3:50pm, a bank cashier noticed that a 64-year-old customer was fidgety, receiving repeated calls and was in a hurry to withdraw N600,000. The cashier asked what the problem was and the woman said she would die if she talked.
Yesterday at about 1550hrs, a bank cashier noticed that a 64-year old customer was fidgety, receiving repeated calls and was in a hurry to withdraw N600,000. The cashier asked what the problem was and the woman said she would die if she talked. pic.twitter.com/paj48gMx85
— SP Benjamin Hundeyin (@BenHundeyin) November 19, 2022
“Police officers from Ogudu Division were quickly contacted. Of the three fraudsters waiting outside, Uche Awaize ‘m’ aged 45 and Osadebe Aigbe ‘m’ aged 35 were arrested. The third suspect bolted.
“Preliminary investigation revealed that the suspects had first collected N90,000 from the woman. An effort is on to arrest the other gang member.”
The spokesperson further enjoined the public to identify the suspected fraudsters so as to recover money collected from their previous victims.
Amid Growing Insecurity, Buhari Government Cuts Police Budget By N92.9 Billion
The Federal Government has slashed the budget proposed by the Nigeria Police Force by almost N93 billion, a situation which the security outfit has warned may frustrate its efforts towards effectively tackling the growing insecurity in the country.
The police blamed the reduction largely on the envelope budgeting system of the government and urged the National Assembly to exclude the NPF from it.
In a presentation made to the National Assembly, the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, decried the slashing of outfit’s proposed budget by the Budget Office of the Federation from N889,681,595,517.74 to N796,785,034,379.56, warning of its impact on the security outfit and its consequence for the country.
Baba made this known to the Senate and House of Representatives Committees on Police Affairs on Tuesday behind closed doors while defending the proposed budget of the NPF in the 2023 Appropriation Bill.
Our correspondent sighted parts of his presentation to the lawmakers on Saturday, November 12, 2022.
While the police are statutorily in charge of internal security, the Armed Forces are to protect the territorial integrity of the country, against external aggression.
However, several security committees of the National Assembly and Service Chief have on different occasions expressed dissatisfaction that the military was now involved in internal operations in almost all the 36 states of the federation.
For instance, the Chairman of the House Committee on Defense, Babajimi Benson, had after a 2022 budget defence session with the Defence Space Administration, on November 9, 2021, said the Armed Forces were carrying out the duties despite their limited resources.
“In Nigeria, if there is kidnapping or banditry, everyone calls the Armed Forces. Roles that are traditionally assigned to the police, our Armed Forces are the ones embarking on them,” he partly said.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Defence and the Armed Forces have been allocated over N1.248tn in the budget.
Out of the 18, military and defence organisations allocated the total sum, the Nigerian Army, Nigerian Air Force and the Nigerian Navy will get the largest chunk of the record military budget, with N638,108,156,198, N174,423,669,604 and N158,790,615,183, respectively.
IGP laments reduction
However, the IGP told the lawmakers that the total minimum projection of the police for the 2023 budgetary year was N889,681,595,517.74, but was reduced by N92,896,561,138.18.
“This was, however, reviewed to N796,785,034,379.56 under the envelope budgetary system by the Budget Office of the Federation,” he said.
Out of the reviewed amount of N796,785,034,379.56, N28,008,261,559.82 is for capital expenditure, while N33,653,116,116 is for overhead cost, with the balance of N735, 123,656,703.74 for personnel cost.
Baba said, “The overhead cost estimate as computed under the envelope budgetary system is grossly inadequate to meet the operational, logistics, and administrative requirements of the force in the year 2023.
“To appreciate this challenge, the Joint Committees on Police Affairs are to humbly note, for instance, that as at today, the force has a fleet of 13,935 vehicles and 1,520 motorcycles nationwide. The minimum cost implications for fuelling for the sustenance of minimal patrol operations per year of these patrol assets is N34,099,946,150.00. Similarly, the monthly minimum maintenance cost for the operations of the fleet of operational vehicles and motorcycles of the force is computed at N8,258,580,000.
“Going by the above computation, the entire sum of N33,653,116,116.00 that is being projected for all subheads in the overhead cost for police formations and the 36 state commands and the FCT in the 2023 budget is not even enough to provide minimal fuelling and maintenance cost for police operational vehicles/motorcycles for seven months.
“This is not to mention other critical subheads such as local travels and transport allowances, international and local training costs, maintenance of buildings (offices and barracks), aircraft, marine boats, feeding of detainees nationwide as well as provision of uniform and accoutrement, which the same subhead is projected to cover.”
