By Chizoba Ogbeche
Abuja
The Inspector General of Police (IGP) Solomon Arase, has said that the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) spent over N600 million in the procurement and maintenance of foreign dogs.
Arase stated this at the commissioning of the ultra-modern mounted troop/veterinary complex and state of the art dog breeding centre, yesterday in Abuja.
The Police boss decried the fact that in this state of affairs in the country, huge funds were being expended on importation of dogs from foreign countries, yet some of these dogs rarely adapt to Nigeria’s policing climes, noting that: “This is certainly not sustainable, especially, in the face of dwindling resources.”
He said the construction of the Dog Breeding Centre was to aid the Nigeria Police acquire capacity to locally breed Police dogs and be self-reliant in dog breeding as well as maintenance in a cost effective manner.
“The initiative is also designed to, in the long-term, support the operations dog requirement of sister law enforcement organisations, Armed Forces as well as breeding of friendly puppies for the civilian population on commercial basis. This is with the intention of evolving the centre into a self-sustaining dog breeding centre as practiced in other climes.
“The breeding centre being commissioned today has the capacity to conveniently breed and supply Police dogs to the entire West African Sun-region and it is projected that at optimal breeding capacity, it can produce well above 200 dogs per year.
“With this commissioning, procurement of dogs for policing activities from foreign countries would now become a thing of the past, and the Nigeria Police will in no distant future take its place of pride among nations with professional K-9 ability.”
