FG sets up committee to ‘explore’ creation of state police

Mohammed Idris, minister of information, says the federal government may adopt state police to check rising insecurity in the country.

Idris spoke on Thursday, after a meeting between President Bola Tinubu and the state governors, at the presidential villa in Abuja.

Addressing the press alongside Caleb Mutfwang, governor of Plateau; Uba Sani, governor of Kaduna; and Sheriff Oborevwori, Delta governor; Idris said the president and governors have agreed on working out modalities for the concept.

The minister added that a series of meetings would take place to determine the workability of a decentralised police force.

He also said a committee has been set up to synthesise all that was discussed at the meeting.

RECURRING DEBATE

For decades, the idea of state policing in Nigeria has elicited mixed reactions from leaders and experts.

Nigeria runs a unitary, centralised police force with exclusive jurisdiction across the country. An inspector-general of police (IGP) oversees the Nigeria Police Force (NPF).

State police would mean police units that are controlled by state governments and whose jurisdictions do not exceed state boundaries.

During his tenure, former President Muhammadu Buhari ruled out the state police option as solution to the country’s endemic security challenges.

Buhari said Nigerians should question why governors, who are at the forefront of the clamour for state police, have not given powers to local governments.

The former president said Nigeria can revert to the traditional rulers for recommendations, and approved N13.3 billion for the commencement of community policing instead.

However, Olusegun Obasanjo, a former president, said Nigeria needs state police to tackle insecurity.

Sani, who has also been at the forefront of the clamour for the creation of state police, had said the country’s security challenges would not be solved without a decentralised police force.