The Nigerian Governors Forum has backed Vice President Yemi Osinbajo’s calls for the creation of state police.
The Chairman, Nigerian Governors Forum and Governor of Zamfara State, Alhaji Abdulaziz Yari, said in Abuja that the governors were in support for the creation of state police.
Yari’s comments come just days after Osinbajo argued that state police was the way to go in tackling security challenges.
Osinbajo advocated the introduction of state police on Thursday at the start of a two-day security summit organised by the Senate in the nation’s capital.
According to the VP, the state policing system is the way to go because having a centralised system – as is currently practiced, cannot effectively secure the nation.
Despite calling for the creation of state police, Osinbajo said there was the need to strengthen the Nigeria Police Force and proposed that the current number of police in the country be tripled.
In expressing support for state police, Governor Yari, however, suggested it should be introduced in phases due to the cost implication.
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has agreed that adoption of state police was the way to go in meeting security needs of the country.
He said every Nigerian was entitled to adequate security by government and that the security failures of the government were not deliberate.
“We cannot realistically police a country the size of Nigeria centrally from Abuja,’’ he argued.
“As a people any killing undermines the security of the state,’’ he stated as he mentioned several killings that had taken place in different parts of the country in recent times.
He said that government had worked on some policy objectives some of which needed legislative approval and cooperation of the judiciary.
He said that the security challenges of the country were complex and nuanced that securing Nigeria’s over 900,000 square Kilometres and 180 million people required far more men and materials than we have at the moment.
“It requires a continual reengineering of our security architecture and strategies; this has to be a dynamic process.’’
According to him, for the country of our size to meet the one policeman to 400 persons approved by the UN, it will require triple of our current police force, far more funding of the police, the military and security agencies.
He said the country must intensify its collaboration with the neighbours to prevent the movement of persons with small arms and disarm pastoralists and other bandits passing through the nation’s borders.
“We must avoid the danger of allowing these conflicts to turn to religious or ethnic conflicts,’’ he said adding that it was the responsibility of political, religious and other leadership elite in Nigeria.’’
