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From Adesuwa Tsan, Abuja
A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Ayodele Arise, has urged the presidency to collaborate with state governors to secure their support for state police.
Senator Arise made the call on Saturday while speaking on a live programme on Arise TV. His statement comes amid President Bola Tinubu’s calls last week for the creation of state police to address persistent insecurity across the country.
President Tinubu had, at an interfaith breaking of fast with the leadership and members of the Senate at the State House, Abuja, declared that the time had come for lawmakers to “start thinking” about embedding state police in the Constitution to enable governments at subnational levels to better secure their territories.
According to him, “Nigeria is extremely challenged, we are facing terrorism, banditry, insurgency, but you never failed to make a right response to these calls. What I will ask for tonight is for you to start thinking how best to amend the Constitution to incorporate the state police for us to secure our country, take over our forests from marauders, free our children from fear.”
He also reiterated the call on Friday when he met the leadership of the House of Representatives.
Reacting to the development, Senator Arise maintained that a section of the country has opposed the proposal, but effective communication of the gains of state police is necessary to secure their buy-in.
He said, “In the interest of our country and in response to the security challenges that we have been facing, President Tinubu has always seen the merit in State policing which is actually the best way that we can deter criminals and their cells that exist in our communities without even knowing it.
“The local police are easily able to identify a strange situation and put intelligence to work, do their investigation and before they are able to do damage because they are trained to know everybody because they relate with everyone like a family.
“So that has been the major attraction of State and local policing.
“Now, in terms of the National Assembly, I am sure you know that the President is a very strategic person in his thinking and a number of policies that we think would not pass the National Assembly, he has been able to achieve them. I don’t see any problem with the National Assembly.
“I only will encourage a lot of education about the pros and cons of State Police to be actually done in terms of marketing to those who were initially opposed to it. And I said initially because in 2010 when we tried to introduce State Police in constitutional amendment, we had opposition, those who were against it but I believe now people have seen the benefits of having security because lives are being threatened, communities are being almost annihilated and of course we see attacks everywhere.
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“Nobody wants to waste his life and so whatever the President can do, I believe is one of his very good strategies to ensure that security of lives and property of Nigerians are guaranteed.
“I will suggest to the National Assembly, the area of amendment is section 214 can be done, first by moving policing to the Concurrent List. That will solve the problem, the Federal will have its Police while the states can have their Police. People must understand that the fact that we have State Police doesn’t completely erase the Federal Police.
“I believe that has been a major problem with some of our leaders with State Police because they couldn’t understand why they will easily surrender all these enormous powers which invariably at the end of the day amounts to nothing because if the job isn’t being done, we are all in a sort of risk.
So once section 214 is removed, you will now go to the states for ratification because as we all know we need 2/3 majority of the 36 states for this to happen. I believe that with the states, even some federal legislators in some states are finding it difficult to travel home easily. So because of that nobody will need too much persuasion before they buy into this idea of course there will still be public hearing and anybody that has any reason to believe that it isn’t too good for the country should come forward and let us debate it to see how this country can move forward in a very short period.”
He expressed confidence that it is not too late to move for state police to be passed in the ongoing Constitution Amendment exercise with the comfortable majority in both chambers of parliament and the ruling party’s control of majority of the 36 states.
Arise said, “I believe that there can be development when we have security. People will be able to think about development of their localities and communities. So, as to the timing, I believe that everything that the President has sent to the National Assembly have been attended to in a very timely fashion and that’s what a President enjoys when the ruling party also controls the legislature and anyway you look at it, the President is sitting pretty to discuss with National Assembly, his programmes, his policies, and this is in the best interest of the country.
“So I believe security can’t wait, another month, another year. I believe once the Bill gets to the table of the Clerk, I believe the Senate President will go into action and maybe some committees will have discussions.
“Yes, it is going to take months but I believe that with the commitment of Mr. President, and the fact that he wants to see it done we can look at some months because you are going to train the personnel, you will get them kitted, and of course, you will now have to define the relationship between the Federal and the State Police.”
On potential abuse of state police to intimidate and suppress opposition voices, he suggested that a Commission should be set up to checkmate such incidents if they occur.
“In terms of the fear of whether any State Governor can use a state police to attack or intimidate opposition, the same powers that the state police will have are what the Federal Police has now but we have been able to use the judiciary in order of checks and balances to show that abuse is limited, it might not be totally eliminated but there will be a suggestion that people from the Judiciary, from teaching services, some civilians that will constitute a commission that will oversee the activities of the Police within the states and of course, we have all these human rights groups, they are everywhere and they can fight for the rights of every individual and of course we don’t have to go far, abuses happened in advanced countries as well and there are body cameras to ensure that whatever you do, everything is being recorded and if you try to abuse a person even from the interrogation room, CCTV can be installed to ensure that the State Police don’t abuse the people or dance to the tune of the governor.
“Even any governor that indulges in human rights abuses can be called to question after leaving office. Look at the number of former governors facing EFCC now. So, there are ways, there are checks and balances that things can be organized in such a way that everybody’s interest is accommodated,” he said.
