State Police: To be or not to be in Nigeria




The issue of whether Nigeria should have a state police or otherwise resurfaced amongst the discussions of the Devolution of Power Committee of the National Conference yesterday and it resulted to heated argument for and against the idea.  

While one of the supporters of the idea, Chief Niyi Akintola (SAN) argued that there was a need for state police in the Nigeria as being practiced in other developed countries of the world, and that in recent times in Nigeria, various states have also created organizations such as corps, militia and vigilante group parallel to law enforcement agents which is an indicator that people have now come to the realization of the need to have state police and that it is only constitutional to allow state who wants such institution to do so. Other supporters of the idea of state police have also argued that for Nigeria to have true federalism there is need for state police, which will be supportive to the federal police through more effective policing at the local level

On the other hands, delegates who opposed the idea explained that state police is prone to abuse as governors might use the police under them to intimidate and chase out their perceived enemies and opponents.

Another identified impediment to state policing is the issues of funding with the dwindling revenue to the state government. It is however a known fact that no matter the paucity of funds, security votes to state governors still runs into billions of naira and is largely unaccounted for.

This issue has been a recurring one over a period of time in Nigeria and a lot of people have argued for, and against it.  And for me, there has been apparent failure of Nigeria security agencies recently.

In the face of the insecurity in the country, could state police possibly be the solution?
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