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Godwin Tsa, Abuja
A Professor of Law, Muhammed Ladan, has said establishment of state and local government police needs the backing of the law, before it will become operational.
Prof. Ladan told Daily Sun that there is the need to operationalise the approval, through a draft bill, to the National Assembly seeking an amendment of the constitution to reflect the establishment of state and local government police.
“First and foremost, we need to understand that the approval is not in a form of a bill but a recommendation contained in a report of the presidential panel on the reform of Special Anti-Robbery Squad, (SARS), of the Nigeria Police, before people are carried away. There is need operationalised it through a draft bill to the National Assembly proposing the amendment of the constitution which recognised a Federal police for the establishment of state and local government police.
Until, that it is done, it cannot become a law.
“So what the president did was to simply agree with the recommendations of the Committee and nothing more.
“You know, although Nigeria is practising a presidential system of government, but in practice, there is no true federalism. What is operational is a Unitary system of government. For example, every state governor is known as chief security officers of their states, but, in practise, they have no control of the security apparatus in their states and so cannot perform such functions.
“For instance, if a state governor has security challenges in his state, he has to report to the Commissioner of Police, who will report to the Assistant Inspector General of police (AIG) of his zone.”
