Senate to amend constitution for creation of state police

The senate has directed its constitutional review committee to put in place a process in view of amending the constitution for the creation of community and state police.

The resolution of the upper legislative chamber was sequel to a motion sponsored by Jonah Jang, senator representing Plateau north, on Tuesday.

Jang had drawn to the attention of the senators to the recent killings in Plateau.

The Plateau senator said there is a need for the federal government to take decisive action against the widespread killings.

On his part, Senate President Bukola Saraki reiterated that there is an urgent review of the country’s security architecture.

“These are acts of criminality and we should not encourage any other colouration to it, be it religious or otherwise. This is criminality. And as such, we have a role to ensure that we must address this criminality to see how we can fight it,” Saraki said.

“We have spoken on many platforms and made suggestions to the Executive on the fact that there is a need for an urgent review of the security architecture of the nation.

“The debate in the British House of Lords also raises this point – how do we think this would affect our economy and investments if we continue to have this kind of security climate? We must see this issue of insecurity not only from the point of view that there is danger and insecurity, but there is also a danger to our economy — especially if we want to grow our economy.

“We as the senate must come up with our own actions. We do not need to flog the issue. We have told the executive what to do. We have told them privately and we have told them publicly. However, on our own part, we must decide on what we need to do.”

The senate also urged the executive to undertake the rehabilitation of displaced persons and reconstruction of communities in all the senatorial districts of Plateau.

The lawmakers also asked the executive to apprehend and persecute all perpetrators and sponsors of violence, no matter how highly placed they are.