State Police will reduce insecurity if jurisdictional boundaries are made – Stakeholders
Some analysts and security experts in Anambra, Ebonyi and Enugu states have argued that establishment of State Police in the country would effectively control crimes if clear jurisdictional boundaries are made.
The stakeholders, in interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), recommended that they must be established with robust safeguards, sustainable funding and defined lines that delineated the force.
Mr Benjamin Ibe, an analyst in Ebonyi, stated that the force would improve intelligence gathering, fast response and increased community trust.
Ibe added that definition of scope of laws of the enforcement agency should be made for effective operation and to avoid conflict with the federal police.
“For crime management, it is best to define limits or authority to enforce laws and to regulate jurisdictions,” Ibe said.
Another analyst, Mr Sylvester Okereke, disclosed that the establishment of state police force in the country was essential to addressing the nation’s security challenges and enhance governance.
Okereke declared that it would foster democratic accountability if properly funded without political interference.
“State Police in Nigeria could be effective based on the fact that the personnel to be engaged shall be individuals that understand dialects of the people.
“Also, the personnel to be engaged should be persons who know the terrains of the component communities,” Okereke said.
He, however, suggested that the officers should be under the joint supervision of both the Federal and state governments.
Mr Anselem Ede, a security expert, worried that in the current political climate, the state police could grow into oppression and intimidation rather than solving security challenges.
“State Police in the Nigerian context may not succeed because state actors will highjack the operations and use it against opposition and those they perceive are not accepting their governance style.
“There might be clashes between the state and federal system. We need to adapt the American model and all independence in all the tiers of government.
“Anything less, it will be effort in futility and become a conduit pipe for embezzling public funds and witch-hunting the innocent populace,” Ede said.
Some residents of Nsukka in Nsukka Local Government of Enugu State said that State Police if established and effectively managed would go a long way in giving adequate protection to lives and property in the country.
Dr Chinedu Ejezie, a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Political Science, University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) said that State Police, when established, would recruit indigenes of the state.
He said that such would help to police the state better because indigenes knew the peculiarities and internal security nature of their states.
“With State Police, crime will be nipped in the bud and even when the crime is committed, tracking and arresting suspects will be easier because the state officers know the in and out of the state.
“The state police officers know the terrain of communities in the state very well and as such there will be no hiding places for criminals in every state.
“I have no doubt that State Police will help to give adequate protection to lives and property in every state,” he said.
Ejezie explained that with clear-cut rules of engagements between the Federal Police and the State Police, there would be no conflict.
“When State Police is established, the law will make it clear for both federal and State Police to know their boundaries, rules of engagements and limit in carrying out their responsibilities,” he said.
The don, however, said that his only fear in establishing State Police was that some state governors might abuse it and use it to fight opposition political parties who disagreed with them in one thing or the other.
Mr Anthony Nnadi, a retired police officer, said the country should expedite actions in establishing State Police in order to end security challenges in the country.
According to him, western countries like US, Britain, Germany, among others are maintaining adequate security in their countries because they have Federal, State and Local Police who work in synergy in handling issues of crime.
Nnadi noted that security challenges in the country would continue to rise until State Police was established.
“With State Police, gathering of intelligence and collaborations between federal and State Police will make it possible for them to fight crime wholistically,” he said.
The retired police officer said that there would be no conflict of any sort since the rule of engagements would be clearly stated and any officer either from federal or state that violated it, would be sanctioned accordingly.
In Enugu, a Human Rights Lawyer, Mr Olu Omotayo, said that State Police, if adopted, would be an effective tool to combat increasing crime rates in the country, maintaining that it would not be misused by the state governors.
Omotayo, Founder, Civil Rights Realisation and Advancement Network (CRRAN), emphasised the need for state security to build and consolidate what the Federal Government was doing to improve the security situation of the country.
“State Police will augment the present security apparatus. The only thing they need to put in place is how it is going to work so that state governors will not hijack it and be using it to infringe on people’s fundamental rights.
“All these things, including their power and rights should be contained in the legal framework establishing State Police.
“With this, there will be no conflict between state and federal police,” Omotayo said.
He expressed the need for Nigeria government to restrategise and restructure the security apparatus, noting that the country cannot continue with what they were currently doing and expecting different results.
“There will be an amendment of law whereby some powers will be given to state police while some powers will be retained for the federal police. The law must give them a specific duty and scope of their powers,” he said.
Similarly, the Chairman, Nigeria Bar Association, Enugu Branch, Mr Venatus Odo, said with law to regulate them, the state and federal police would not conflict.
He described State Police as most desirable, saying, “You cannot be policing people you don’t know especially their terrain; State Police has always been a desired and recommended tool to fight insecurity”.
Odoh stated that the State Police would reduce the exploitative tendencies of police and its deficiencies in securing lives and property of Nigerians as well as lessen its long chain of command from Abuja.
“So let us have states with their own police that are subject to control of the state Police Service Commission,” Odoh advocated.
Contributing, Chairman, Enugu State Chapter of Public Affairs Analysts of Nigeria, Dr Ambrose Igboke, said Nigeria needed highly decentralised police system for effective policing to be able to deal with insecurity ravaging many states in the country.
The analyst, who noted that Nigeria was long overdue for state police, decried the idea of police in Abuja, managing and controlling police officers across 36 states of the country, including Federal Capital Territory, rendering governors powerless.
“I am an advocate of state policing because every crime is local and for you to be able to effectively deal with crime, both detection, prevention, and as well as engagement with criminal actors, you need to know the environment and locality and to do that, somebody on ground needs to be in charge.
“And when governors are not in charge of the commissioner of police and other security outfits, they cannot call anyone to order or deal with crimes effectively,” he said.
Igboke explained that there would not be confusion and conflicts between federal and State Police, saying that the initiative would give governors of different states an opportunity to train and fund police according to their security needs.
In Anambra, a legal practitioner, Mr Stanley Okafor, has urged the National Assembly and the Federal Government not to vest the sole control of the state police in state governors.
Okafor averred that such absolute control of the state police by the state governors without involving the Federal Government could lead to abuse of power by the governors under the current political structure.
“On how we can make the state police to function effectively, we must make sure that we don’t leave all the control to the state governors.
“If we are going to promulgate a law to establish the State Police, there must be a mechanism to ensure that the Federal Government will have some form of control over the state police if the need arise,” he said.
The legal practitioner urged restraint in establishing the State Police considering what he described as “illegality” perpetrated by some former and serving governors to control their state resources.
“We have to be careful with the establishment of the State Police, so that these governors will not use it to their own advantage and cause more damage to our democracy.
“I am saying this because of some of the unconstitutional actions they engage in to control power and their state resources,” he said.
Okafor, who is also the Executive Director, Leadership Orientation and Basic Rights Advocacy Centre, a civil society organisation (CSO), claimed that many of the state governors Nigeria had produced from 1999 to the current dispensation are not disciplined, going by the records.
“Therefore, there is no way you can guarantee sanity in the State Police under such characters.
“The governors have proved to be the clog in the wheel of democracy of the country by their abuse of constitutional power, especially against the Local Governments.
According to him, in spite of the efforts of the judiciary, anti-craft agencies and other Nigerians to salvage democracy at this level, the governors have continued to sit on the finances of the local governments across the country.
He noted that under the 1999 constitution as amended, section 214 (1) established the Nigeria Police Force as the sole police authority in the country.
Okafor said that under the current law, there could not be any other police, unless the current law was amended.
He said that section 215 (4) of the 1999 constitution however, empowered state governors to exercise authority over the Commissioners of Police (CP) in their states.
“However, the CP may refer such directive from the governor to the Federal Government for more clarification to enable him act.
“Such restriction mount against the powers of the governor for the control of the police in the state, hence the clamour for the establishment of the State Police to complement the efforts of the federal police in tackling security challenges facing the country,” he said.
