Obasanjo Advocates Creation Of State Police To Tackle Insecurity

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said Nigeria needs to establish state police in order to address the insecurity problem in the country.

The former President, who is also a retired General stated that creation of state police was the option to tackle the problem.

while saying the problem had become a concern to every Nigerian.

According to a statement by the Special Assistant to Obasanjo on Media, Kehinde Akinyemi, on Thursday, the former president said this when the leadership of the National Association of Ex-Local Government Chairmen in Nigeria paid him a courtesy visit in Abeokuta on Wednesday.

Obasanjo spoke on the need to strengthen the traditional system and the local government administration.

He said, “Our situation in Nigeria concerns everyone, particularly, the case of terrorism. The case has gotten over the issue of community police. It is now state police. It is from that state police that we can now be talking about community police.

“I prepared during the popular Murtala/Obasanjo administration, because I believe that there is need to enable that tier of government to work truly as a local government. They have their own Executive, Judiciary and Legislature.

“They were working and they were very visible, building and managing roads, looking into education, health, local administration, agriculture, but they are all gone.”

Obasanjo, who was presented with a letter as life patron, assured them that he would be available on request for their needs.

Speaking on the initiative, Obasanjo who commended the people behind the formation of the body, said the development clearly showed that some local chairmen in the country were better than even the top elected leaders.