State Police Only Way To Curb Insecurity — Security Experts, CSOs Insist

The need to decentralise the Nigeria Police has become a subject of discourse after the Police Force, at a national dialogue said the country was not yet “ripe” and “mature” for the establishment of state police.

The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun, represented by Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Ben Okolo had expressed fear that state governors would abuse their powers over state police.

The national dialogue, held in Abuja further set the ground for a fresh debate on state policing, particularly among past heads of state and government, lawmakers and stakeholders among others, where varying views on the need to decentralize the police were expressed.

Speaking to THE WHISTLER, a Security and Risk Management expert, Onyekachi Adekoya berated the position of the Nigeria Police at the national dialogue. “What makes the IGP more competent than a governor elected by the people to control the police?” he asked.

The managing director of PR 24, a security outfit described the opinion of the police as “flimsy”, “lame” and “weak”, noting that the country was due for state police.

He said, “The constitution does not give such powers, even to the IGP, the powers are vested in the president who is just about a co-equal in terms of being sovereign with the subnational governors.

“He could as well say that the Federal police give the presidency powers to abuse the police and this has happened several times in the past. So, for that reason, we should not have state police? These are just lame, flimsy, shallow excuses for why we are not doing what we should be doing.”

According to him, state policing will not be the magic wand that solves the problem, but rather one that sets the nation in the right direction to address local issues.

Timothy Avele, another security professional, recommended proper safeguards in the amendment of the law to eliminate or minimise abuse by state governors. “I believe, with time and practice, those issues raised by the IGP will take off,” he said.

The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu alongside 13 others had proposed the ‘Bill for an Act to alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to Provide for Establishment of State Police and Related Matters’, which has now passed its second reading.

The bill, comprising 18 clauses, seeks to amend sections 34, 35, 39, 42, 84, 89, 129, 153, 197, 214, 215 and 216 of the Constitution.

For instance, section 214 (4) of the bill proposes that the federal police “shall not interface with the operations of any state police of the internal security affairs of a state”. Section 124 (4a), however, outlines the circumstances under which the federal police can address “serious threats to public order” within a state.

The first circumstance is where there is a “complete breakdown of law and order” and the state police are unable to contain such a threat and the second reason is if the state police is “unable to function owing to administrative, financial or other problems which render it inoperative at a given time”.

Going by the demands of the proposed bill, Avele explained that it would require a huge responsibility on the part of the state police management, wherein the level of equipment, trained personnel, funding and manpower becomes a determinant of its success which may experience a setback ab initio.

According to section 215 (4) of the proposed legislation, “state police shall be headed by a commissioner of police who shall be appointed by the governor of the state on the advice of the Federal Police Service Commission from among serving members of the state police subject to confirmation by the state house of assembly”.

Subsection 5 states that “the governor or such other commissioner of the government of the state as he may authorise on his behalf may give to the commissioner of police such lawful directions with respect to the maintenance and securing of public safety and order as he may consider necessary, and the commissioner of Police shall comply with those directions or cause them to be complied with”.

Reacting to this, a former Police Commissioner (CP), Lawerence Alobi while speaking on Arise Television, recommended that the appointment of the CPs must be application-based, involving those with the will, capacity and competence, while taking into consideration their qualification, experience, vision and agenda.

“The police is a very critical issue in this country. Without policing the nation will collapse. This is a way out, and the issue of fear that governors will control; we can overcome the fear.

“The constitution can be amended, any governor who tries to abuse its powers should be made an offence that should be contained in the constitution, that will keep the governor at bay,” Alobi said.

Meanwhile, Avele noted that the state police should focus more on community & intelligence-based policing — one that is built on proactive and pre-conflict resolution police operations, rather than the current reactive system being practised by the federal police.

“Another important thing for it to succeed is that the state government must know from day one that intelligence is not free and must be paid for. The good thing is that aside from hardware, these state police can be trained as per any police establishment in the world with minimal cost.

“Am confident it will succeed if there’s healthy competition among the states, already Lagos and Ondo states are ahead, others will have to run hard to close the gap,” he said.

With the various law enforcement agencies in Lagos, and the Amotekun in Ondo where they collaborate with the police force in maintaining law and order and ensuring security, Avele believes, other states across the country are already practising the state policing system and wound only require “more training and modern ammunition” to get integrated into the proposed order.

Also reacting on the matter, the Citizens Advocacy for Social & Economic Rights (CASER) told THE WHISTLER that “It is incongruous in a federal system of government, where political power is given to a governor by the people and the constitution, yet that governor is not able to organise an independent police force to actualise his political aspirations for the people and the territory that he governs.”

On its part, the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), called on the National Assembly to broaden the scope of consultations on the need for state police, to elicit wider suggestions on how to ensure that state police are not “converted to the private killers for state governors” as feared by the police authority.

“…A fear that is very true unless and except a law is made to divest the control of the state police away from the governors and the control of the national police away from the President so there’s an equilibrium of law enforcement in Nigeria that wouldn’t turn out to become the special killer squads of either the governors or the President.

“The police, whether national or state police, should serve the interest of the people and public good,” HURIWA said.

Recall that 16 governors had supported the creation of state police and recommended changes in the constitution and the current policing structure to enable the operationalisation of the initiative.