The Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, has unveiled medical equipment said to be worth N450m to aid it in the fight against COVID-19.
The unveiling of the medical equipment from the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) is coming at a time the commission is facing a probe by a House of Representatives committee over allegations of financial malfeasance, including N450m said to have been extended to the Nigeria Police Force as Covid-19 fund.
Launching the equipment, which included Intelligent Disinfection Doors, at the Delta State Police Headquarters in Asaba, the police IG said that they would go a long way in assisting the police to serve the public better.
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Adamu, who was represented by the Delta State Commissioner of Police, Hafiz Mohammed Inuwa, thanked the NDDC for the gesture, noting: “In our detention facilities we have other members of the society, who for one reason or the other find themselves there. The medical equipment and palliatives will help us to protect everyone in our facilities and ensure good sanitary conditions for them.”
“We thank President Muhammadu Buhari and the NDDC for finding it expedient and important to provide these palliatives for us. We are happy that they saw the need to protect the lives of our policemen, many of whom are vulnerable to the Covid-19 disease.”
He stated that organisations partnering with the police bolster their confidence to perform their security functions well, adding that such collaboration would also help to protect the lives of policemen and even members of the society who find themselves in police detention facilities.
In his remarks, while handing over other medical supplies at the Police Officers Mess in Asaba, the NDDC Acting Executive Director, Projects, Cairo Ojougboh, stated that the COVID-19 intervention was meant to complement the efforts of the Federal Government in checking the spread of the Coronavirus disease.
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He emphasised that the intervention was necessary because it was important to assist the police force to protect its members from falling victim to the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said: “Whether we accept it or not, the police are the best friends of good people in the society. They protect us and without them, we will be in serious trouble. So we have to do everything possible to make sure that they are assisted to do their job.”
Ojougboh observed that the medical palliatives, which included local fabrics of face masks, hand sanitisers, thermometers, hand gloves, and disinfection machines, would be distributed to all police commands in the Niger Delta region.
He said: “All these palliatives we are distributing would not have been possible in the past because some people in the National Assembly will divert the funds. Before now, the two chairmen of NDDC committees in the two chambers of the National Assembly were the de facto managers of the NDDC.”
