Following the call by the Northern Governors’ Forum for the creation of state police, former Inspector General of Police, Mike Okoro, has maintained that state police is not the solution to the multi-faceted security challenges facing the country.
He suggested that the government address the issue of manpower and funding to the Nigeria police, instead
DAILYPOST recalls that the 19 Northern governors had met with traditional rulers in Kaduna to make the call for state police as a result of security challenges facing the region.
However, Okiro, who was a guest on the Morning show on Arise TV, maintained that the call for State police is not new, especially, knowing that there were regional police forces in 1965 whose abuse led to the establishment of the Unitary police in 1971.
“The issue of insecurity is a daily affair now because the police is a federal police, we cannot just say because the police are not properly funded, they do not have enough manpower, they have equipment but if the governor thinks that the flag is not enough, they are going to put the police, well, will be it but if they have said and the police goes back to what it has to be, lack of manpower, lack of welfare, it will go back to where we started from.”;;
He argued that creating the Police is not the answer to the problem in Nigeria; it is the commitment of the government to make the police succeed that will allay the fears of Nigerians.
According to him, state police would translate to duplicating forces in the country, and the nation is not ready for that, given the level of insecurity.
“It means that you’re having 36 police forces in the country, and it will be difficult right now, for Nigerians, that kind of arrangement, maybe in the future.
He said the closest that could come with a multilayered police force for effective security tasks should be regional policing, where police commissioners from a state in a region with cultural alignment could be moved within the region while it is loyal to the region and the federal government.
“Let me give you an example, in the South-South, all of them in that region are aligned through similar culture, that they can work together, you can take somebody from Akwa Ibom, to Cross River, from Rivers State, to Bayelsa, from Delta, to Edo, you can do that, because they understand the culture, and the language, it’s easier for them to operate, than to push somebody from Kano to Bayelsa, because they cannot swim, they don’t know the language, the culture, it is a bit difficult, but if you have duplicate police, that will remove this request for registration for state police, Okiro said
The former IG noted that given the situation today, some governors may use the state police to run the opposition out of their state and convert it to a one-party state, and that would have great consequences for democratic and political development in such a state.
But all of them are within the same place, and the police has a lot of advantages, one, if there is a state police, the governor will come to the police, commissioner of police, the governor can decide to use the police, to run the opposition, I don not want to mention names, we know there are some governors, who have the power to go to the police, will make their state, a one political party state.
“We have the regional police before the civil war, we just had a police, you know what happened in 1965, because the police was used against political enemies of those in power, that was what made the government of Gowon to have a unity police force, the political class called the Nigerian police force for the whole country, because the police is an embodiment of unity in the country, Okiro stated.
