The Nigeria Police Force was in a battered and neglected state when President Bola Tinubu assumed office and appointed a new Inspector General of Police, the police chief told lawmakers on Tuesday.

The IGP, Kayode Egbetokun, also said Nigeria must address the manpower shortage in the police, noting that even criminals are taking advantage of the deficiency.

Mr Egbetokun stated this on Tuesday while appearing before the House of Representatives at the sectoral debate.

He said Nigeria is still far away from the United Nations’ recommended policing ratio of one police to 400 citizens. He stated that Nigeria has about a 1:1,000 policing ratio.

“The manpower of the police today is grossly inadequate, even the criminals know that.

“The UN ratio of 1:400 is not attainable in Nigeria today because the ratio in Nigeria is 1:1000 which suggests that we have to double the manpower in the police and over,” he said.

Mr Egbetokun, who was appointed as IGP on 19 June by President BolaTinubu, said he inherited a force that had been battered as a result of years of neglect.

“Unfortunately, we met on ground a police force that had been battered, a police force that has suffered serious neglect over the past few years. The police also finds itself operating in a very difficult environment partly as a direct consequence of this neglect,” Mr Egbetokun said.

The police chief further explained that the government has been unable to adequately address the issue of logistics and equipment for the police.

The IGP explained that getting operational vehicles for the 1,137 police divisional headquarters across the country has been a challenge.

“We have 1,137 police divisional headquarters across 774 LGAs in Nigeria but getting operational vehicles for the division is difficult. Each of these divisions requires at least four functional vehicles but we have divisions that don’t have any functional operational vehicles as of today,” Mr Egbetokun told the lawmakers.

He, therefore, called on the lawmakers to increase the budgetary allocation to the police.

After the presentation by the IGP and the other security chiefs, the House went into a closed-door session.