Opening the centre yesterday, inspector general of police Solomon Arase revealed that Nigeria spent over N600m (£2.1m) procuring and maintaining foreign dogs last year. He added that the construction of the Abuja Dog Breeding Centre would help the NPF acquire the capacity breed police dogs locally and become self-reliant with regards to maintenance in a cost effective manner.
Also, Mr Arase lamented the fact that huge funds were being expended on the importation of dogs from foreign countries, even though some of these dogs rarely adapt to Nigeria’s policing climes. He added that in support of government policy on Made-In-Nigeria goods, the NPF has adopted Bingo Dog food for their dogs to help the naira and general economy.
Mr Arase said: “The initiative is also designed to, in the long-term, support the operational dog requirements of sister law enforcement organisations, armed forces as well as breeding of friendly puppies for the civilian population on a 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 sub-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."
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