State Police danger to Nigerian democracy – Ex- IGP Okiro

By Tunde Opalana

While millions of Nigerians root for creation of state police to douse tension of criminality and stem spate of insecurity, a former Inspector General of Police, Mike Okiro said state police could be injurious to the nation’s fledging democracy.

He said that state policing is not the antidote to the frightening degree of insecurity across geopolitical zones of the country.

Okiro who featured on the morning show of the Arise television on Monday said without prejudice to the yearnings of different sections of the Nigerian society for creation of state police, unitary police remain the best option for the country.

The former police boss insisted that possibility of abuse of state police by state executive governors will definitely erode the import of its creation.

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He laid credence to the emergence of unitary police in 1971 following the abuse of the regional police forces that had been in existence since1965.

Okiro cautioned on the danger of state policing to democracy saying
some governors may abuse the state police to suppress the opposition, run them out of their state and give room for a one-party state.

This, he said, will negatively impact on the nation’s democratic process and political development.

He said “the state police has a lot of advantages, one, if there is a state police, the governor will come to the police, commissioner of police, the governor can decide to use the police, to run the opposition, I don not want to mention names, we know there are some governors, who have the power to go to the police, will make their state, a one political party state.

“We have the regional police before the civil war, we just had a police, you know what happened in 1965, because the police was used against political enemies of those in power, that was what made the government of Gowon to have a unity police force, the political class called the Nigerian police force for the whole country, because the police is an embodiment of unity in the country”.

Rather than contemplating state policing, Okiro want the Federal Government to address the issue of manpower and funding to the Nigeria police.

He said creating the Police is not the answer to the problem in Nigeria; it is the commitment of the government to make the police succeed.

“The issue of insecurity is a daily affair now because the police is a federal police, we cannot just say because the police are not properly funded, they do not have enough manpower, they have equipment but if the governor thinks that the flag is not enough, they are going to put the police, well, will be it but if they have said and the police goes back to what it has to be, lack of manpower, lack of welfare, it will go back to where we started from.”

Talking of the financial implication of such creation considering the lean purse of the nation, he argued that state police will result in duplicating forces in the country.

“It means that you’re having 36 police forces in the country, and it will be difficult right now, for Nigerians, that kind of arrangement, maybe in the future.”