Nigeria Can Amend Constitution To Have State Police In 10 Days — Ekweremadu

On Thursday, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, Chairman of the Committee on Electoral Reforms and Constitutional Amendment of the People’s Democratic Party, said that the federal police system that exists in the country will not address the current security challenges.

During the inauguration of the committee at the PDP National Headquarters, in Abuja, he said this in a speech.

Ekweremadu, the immediate past Deputy Senate President, also said that within 10 days, Nigeria might develop state police to resolve the nation’s troubling insecurity. He said that with the right political push in place, this would be possible.

Ekweremadu, who also served as Chairman of the Committee for the Revision of the 1999 Constitution at the 7th and 8th National Assemblies, noted that there was a general consensus that the new centralized police system had failed miserably.

He stated, “The weaknesses in our structure and the Constitution we operate, have never been as pronounced as they are today. Some of us forewarned that feeding bottle federalism would only continue to increase our appetite for wealth sharing and guzzling, kill our propensity to create wealth, make us poorer. It is regrettable to say that the chicken has come home to roost.
 
“In the absence of state police, the security of lives and property has practically collapsed. So long as we run a dysfunctional centralised policing, for that long will our insecurity-induced pains and losses continue to rise. The community policing initiative is illusory, cosmetic, ephemeral, inorganic, and will certainly not change anything.
 
“With the right political will, the amendments to the Constitution to achieve decentralised police and secure lives and property can be achieved in 10 days.”