By Ebere Agozie
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) Mohammed Ndarani says formation of state police will help curb the persistent and embarrassing security breaches across.
Ndarani said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria on Tuesday in Abuja.
He said the nation has been under the waves of abductions, attacks by suspected bandits and other violent crimes, hence, the call for the establishment of a multi-level policing system, including state police.
“The persistently and embarrassing security breaches across the country and the apparent crass failure of the one Federal Police structure is a source of worry.
“How can the federal police adequately police a 200 Million population, a vast and diversified territory consisting of 36 states and Abuja: 774 Local Government Areas, 8,812 Wards, 176,606 polling units with only 371,000 underpaid, understaffed, under-trained and under-motivated police officers commanded by the Inspector General of Police headquartered in Abuja.
“With the rising spate of insecurity, and the gradual involvement of the communities and local vigilantes in collaborative efforts between the regular police and members of the public in protecting lives and property: there is no doubt that the neighbourhood would be safer, crime reduced and offenders easily fished out’’.
He said that out of the over twenty-five federating nations in the world today which practice multilevel policing systems, Nigeria is the only country without a state police.
“This is why I made a strong submission to the National Assembly on state police to strengthen our proposal for a parliamentary system of government.
“State police is an essential aspect of a strong federation which we seek to achieve through our submissions’’.
He said that as a corollary to the Federal Police Service Commission, the state police should put in place a State Police Commission, nominated by broad-based groups with proven integrity and non-partisan.
“Any member of any state police found to be partisan or a card-carrying member of a party should be dropped.
“The state police commission would be charged with the duty of recruitment, promotion, discipline, and training of officers.
“They will also put up a robust guideline to deal with all acts of indiscipline and accountability of these officers, some of which should be handled by the Federal Police Force.
“The state heads should only be called Commissioners of Police and shall be answerable to the State House of Assembly, Federal Ministry of Police Affairs and the judiciary’’.
He said that to foster cooperation between the federal and state police, the constitution should specify and clearly define the responsibility of the federal and state police formations.
“It should give a clear-cut demarcation between their spheres of operation.
“Certain crimes should be classed as federal crimes while others should be classed as state crimes, and there should be avenues for the federal police to intervene, take over and prosecute offenders’’.
Ndarani added that other details should be worked out to accommodate the peculiarities of Nigeria’s type of democracy.
“These details would be on how to check the excesses of politicians who would use the police at their disposal to hunt down and terrorise their political opponents; and to quell opposition and wantonly violate the rights of the citizens.
The News Agency of Nigeria recalls that on February 20, 2024, a bill proposing the creation of state police successfully passed the second reading at the House of Representatives.
The bill was backed by 13 House members and gained the majority’s favour with many lawmakers arguing that the security challenges take preeminence over concerns about political victimisation by state governors. The debate for state police creation primarily stems from the centralised nature of the Nigerian Police Force, which many security pundits perceive as inadequate for addressing the unique security challenges across the country’s diverse regions.
