Gov. Gboyega Oyetola of Osun has called for the decentralisation of the Nigeria Police to meet the nation’s current challenges.
A statement by Mr Ismail Omipidan, the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, on Wednesday in Osogbo, said Oyetola made the submission at the 2nd Annual Colloquium of the Sultan Maccido Institute for Peace, Leadership and Development Studies, University of Abuja.
The governor, who acknowledged the efforts of the Federal Government for establishing community police, said that the intervention was inadequate, as it was still being controlled from the centre.
According to him, the constitutional provision that assigned the role of Chief Security Officer to governors ought to have provided corresponding empowerment and control of the security agencies to the same governors to enable them to perform their responsibilities effectively.
The governor identified “poverty” as the source of insecurity, which he said, created a gulf between the rich and the poor as well as inequitable allocation of resources, which pits one region against the other.
Oyetola said the creation of Amotekun in the South-West zone was a child of necessity.
He said that the security arrangement was complementing the conventional security agencies to effectively tackle armed banditry, kidnapping, armed robbery, among others.
Oyetola also said that government at all levels should not be left alone in the fight against insecurity in the country. He, therefore, called for collective and concerted efforts to deliver the security that “we desire as a nation and as a people”.
The governor also called for the inclusion of the traditional rulers in tackling the nation’s security challenges.
“For proper security of lives and property of our people, and the prompt containment of the growing challenges, we must inevitably now engage our traditional institutions,” Oyetola said.
