Earlier today, the IG of Police, Solomon Arase, while speaking at the inauguration of the Police Dog Breeding Centre and Ultra Modern Mounted Troop in Abuja, said that the Nigeria Police Force had spent over N600m on the procurement and maintenance of foreign dogs in the last few years.
He said: “This is certainly not sustainable in the face of the current dwindling resources.” The IG said that so much money was being spent on the importation of dogs from foreign countries that rarely adapted to the country’s policing objective.
He added that the centre was built to aid the police acquire capacity to locally breed police dogs as well as support other security agencies in the country. If effectively utilised, he said it would save the nation some foreign exchange that would have gone into procurement of dogs from foreign countries.
The centre has the capacity to breed and supply police dogs to the entire West African. It is projected that at optimal breeding capacity, it can produce well above 200 dogs per year. It would also provide job opportunities for other Nigerians aside from the police