State police is the solution – Senate Leader

Senate leader, Opeyemi Bamidele,  has said that the establishment of state police will go a long way to addressing the insecurity across the country.

Bamidele, who stated this in Abuja yesterday, Monday in a statement issued by his media office described the current state of policing in Nigeria as “ailing and dysfunctional.”

The statement read in part, “We must admit that the system can no longer guarantee the dignity of human lives and the security of collective assets considering our security dynamics in the Fourth Republic.

“The proposal for the creation of state police has been a subject of intense debate in the last decade or more.

“This, in part, can be attributed to the rise of armed attacks orchestrated by diverse interests either pursuing divisive agendas or seeking predatory ends in virtually all geopolitical zones,” he said.

He noted that Nigeria, one of the world’s fastest-growing nations in terms of population, could not continue to operate a centralized policing system.

The lawmaker further noted that the ongoing review of the 1999 Constitution would allow stakeholders to interrogate the nation’s security framework and take a position on the desirability or otherwise of state police in the country.

The bill for the establishment of the state police is currently in the National Assembly. In February, the House of Representatives passed the bill for the second reading.

The bill, sponsored by the Deputy Speaker of the House, Benjamin Kalu and 14 others, seeks to alter the relevant Sections of the 1999 Constitution to pave the way for states to establish their policing outfits.