As banditry, kidnapping and terrorism ravage Nigeria, 36 governors have have agreed to facilitate a law for the establishment of state police system.
The governors rose from a meeting in Abuja and agreed to join the state police train, but Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai declined because, according to him, “Nigeria is not yet ripe for the idea’’.
To accommodate all, the governors resolved that once the law is in place, every state will be free to fix the timeline it will put its State Police Force in place based on availability of resources.
The Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) will soon present a memo to the National Assembly Constitution Review Committee, which will be headed by Deputy Senate President Ovie Omo-Agege.
Governors have decided to secure President Muhammadu Buhari’s support for their plan. He had inaugurated a committee to review similar recommendations on State Police.
Their position was later taken to the National Economic Council (NEC) on Thursday in Abuja.
“At our pre-NEC meeting, we weighed all options on the security challenges in the country and we reached an agreement that State Police System is likely to be one of the solutions to the problems at hand.
“We took stock of the fact that Nigeria is one of the countries with federalism without state police. In other federal jurisdictions like the United States (U.S.), India and others, there are federal, state, municipal and county police systems.
“We discussed the implications of State Police and came into the conclusion that it will not affect our unity, diversity and cohesion as a nation. Rather, good security apparatchik will give a sense of belonging to all and promote economic integration,’’ El-Rufai said.
