Expert advocates N3tr emergency intervention fund for effective police
A security expert, Matthew Ibadin, has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to establish a N3 trillion Emergency Intervention Fund (EIF) for the Nigeria Police Force to strengthen internal security
A security expert, Matthew Ibadin, has called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to establish a N3 trillion Emergency Intervention Fund (EIF) for the Nigeria Police Force to strengthen internal security operations nationwide.
He made the call in an open letter to the President published online, noting that inadequate funding remained the major obstacle to effective policing.
Ibadin, who praised President Tinubu for appointing the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Olatunji Disu, warned that meaningful reforms would be difficult without urgent financial support outside routine budgetary allocations.
He said the police lacked critical operational assets, noting that Nigeria had fewer than 3 functional police helicopters and that it would require at least 50 to improve surveillance, rapid response, and crime-fighting capacity nationwide.
Ibadin also stated that the force needed at least 500 operational vehicles in each of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to strengthen patrol coverage and emergency response, adding that many area commanders and divisional police officers currently operate without official vehicles.
The security expert further highlighted poor welfare conditions, weak training capacity, inadequate investigative funding, and the absence of a comprehensive national crime database as factors undermining efficiency and public confidence in the police.
According to him, the Federal Government should deploy the over 11,000 recently withdrawn Police Mobile Force (PMF) personnel to highway patrol operations and establish security buffer outposts along major roads to curb kidnapping, banditry, and armed robbery.
Ibadin also advocated merit-based recruitment of specialists in fields such as cybersecurity, intelligence, forensic investigation, and information technology to reposition the police for technology-driven policing and improve crime detection nationwide.
He called for direct statutory funding of police training institutions, including the Police Academy, Police Staff College, Jos, and Police Detective College, Enugu, to ensure sustained professional development backed by Acts of Parliament.
The security analyst equally stressed the need to upgrade police pensions and improve living conditions in barracks, particularly for junior officers, noting that better welfare would enhance morale, professionalism, and public respect for the force.
According to him, the proposed intervention fund would support urgent logistics, technology upgrades, and personnel welfare, enabling the police to respond more effectively to Nigeria’s security challenges and restore public trust.
