Senator representing Niger East in the 10th Senate, Sani Musa, has expressed concerns over the proposed creation of state police.
Worried by escalating insecurity ravaging the country, the Nigerian government is considering state police to address the challenge, even though some governors are divided on the proposal.
However, speaking after a recent ‘Retreat of the Senate Committee on Review of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria’, the lawmaker rejected the state policing proposal, warning of political abuse.
“I am no longer in support of what we want to do in creating State Police. I just took a sample of the Community State Policing that we said we had introduced.
”It’s not working; look at the infrastructure; look at the photography of the people that work; it’s not balanced. It will only create a problem for this country.
“There will be political abuse; there will be corruption; ethnic, religious, or zonal bias and disparities. Furthermore, in coordination, there will be challenges between the states and the federal.”
The lawmaker, however, supported the financial autonomy recently granted to all the local governments in the country.
“Because, today, the third tier of government is not in existence. It is just recently I heard a governor who is against the judgement, saying there is nothing like the third tier of government,” he added.
What do you need to know?
Calls for alternative security mechanisms have intensified recently given the seemingly intractable security challenges in the country.
Several people have also moved for the creation of state policing, emphasizing the decentralisation of policing in the country.
Amid these calls, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu recently ordered the relocation of the defence minister as well as security chiefs to Sokoto to handle increasing security challenges in the North-West.
This decision, despite continued challenges, has resulted in the neutralization of some bandit kingpins terrorising the region.
