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The Senate Leader, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, said the National Assembly is putting mechanisms in place to ensure governors do not abuse the stage police.
Opeyemi stated this on Wednesday after joining re-elected Governor of Ekiti State, Biodun Oyebanji on a visit to President Bola Tinubu at Aso Rock.
He said fears that governors would abuse state police were legitimate but maintained that the Senate had envisaged such scenario and is responding accordingly.
Opeyemi told State House correspondents, “There will always be fears and concerns, but whether the concerns are well-founded is another issue altogether, and we are not unmindful of them.
“They are legitimate concerns, but let me put it this way: even with the federal police, a governor who is the chief security officer in the state can still use the police in a way he deems possible, depending on how much the system allows manipulation.
“Most importantly, we are putting mechanisms in the law as we amend the constitution that would prevent or minimize instances of abuse by state governors.
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“And as much as possible, I believe that not everything can go into the constitution, but what’s important at this point is that all the governors, or most of them, are on the same page with us.
“And that will be demonstrated by the speed with which the bill will receive concurrence in their state houses of assembly when we eventually transmit it. We all must know state police is a child of necessity.”
He said everyone across political divides agreed state police was necessary in light of the nation’s security situation.
He said, “All of us are on the same page that there’s a need for this.
“In the amendment to the Police Act that will follow, we will spell out more details — details that cannot possibly go into the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
