Dr Charles Omole, Director General of the Institute for Police and Security Policy Research, has called for increased funding for the Nigerian Police Force to improve operational efficiency amid worsening insecurity. Speaking during an interview on Channels Television's Sunrise Daily on Tuesday, Omole revealed that the police received no capital budget in 2025 outside of salaries. "I have said before, it's no longer secret. Last year, in 2025, from January to December, the Police did not receive one kobo of capital budget other than salaries; nothing was paid to them," he said. He questioned how the force could carry out its duties under such conditions.
Omole cited the unimplemented special intervention squad initiative introduced by former Inspector General of Police Kayode Egbetokun, designed to deploy rapid response teams across geopolitical zones. "The whole idea of the squad is to be a team in each geopolitical zone, their job is just to be ready to intervene in issues within 1 hour… but that idea did not lift because of funding, it was never funded," he said. He identified a lack of intelligence infiltration, rapid response capacity, and early warning systems as critical gaps in Nigeria's security architecture. "As of now, Nigerian intelligence should have infiltrated all of these bad groups; they are always recruiting, they can infiltrate us, the army, the police, but we can't infiltrate theirs," Omole added.
The fact that the police received zero capital budget in 2025 exposes a systemic neglect that goes beyond manpower or strategy. Dr Charles Omole's revelation about the defunct special intervention squad shows that even well-designed security plans collapse without funding. This underfunding directly undermines public safety, leaving Nigerians more vulnerable to attacks that could have been prevented with functional rapid response systems. The country's inability to infiltrate militant networks, as Omole noted, reveals a weakened intelligence framework that benefits armed groups operating with near impunity.
