By Runsewe Solomon
The desirability of state policing has been in the discuss before now.
The Hope Classics went out to speak with some lawyers about it. Excepts.
In view of this, let me submit that I am naturally scared of State Police because of the political landscape in Nigeria.
This is premised on the fact that the way some Governors abuse power and behave is worrisome.
Look at our Local Government system, look at our State Houses of Assembly. They are all subjects to the whims and caprices of the executes.
If states are allowed to have State Police, won’t it be used to terrorise the people….?
This on one other side, let us watch how Amotekun will thrive, perhaps that will give us insight into what the future of State Police will be.
But remember, the National Assembly in conjunction with the President are the only instrument through which State Police can see the light of the day.
The creation of State Police will assist in combating the rising wave of insecurity in Nigeria as the outfit will be on hand to attend to issues of insecurity with the understanding of the terrain of the state.
It will also complement the efforts of the Nigeria Police in dealing with issues of insecurity and other criminal activities.
The fear about state Police is the tendency to turn the outfit to a tool by the state Governors in dealing with perceived political enemies.
State police is a concept in Policing whereby the State Unity of the Federation has the right to establish her own police force subject to limitations imposed by the organic law of the land.
As it is presently constituted, the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has no provisions for State Police.
NBA Chairman Akure Branch
I seriously share the sentiment that State Police established for the sole purpose of fighting crime which include prevention, detection and prosecution of offenders, will go a long way to solve some of the security challenges we are currently facing as a nation. Apart from crimes like money laundering, cybercrime, terrorism and insurgency which most times have international dimensions, most crimes have local colouration and contents and are committed over a given area within a State or territory. For instances crimes like kidnapping, armed robbery, cultism etc are largely locally planned and executed.
It is therefore my view that if we have a very strong State Police; well regulated, devoid of political manipulation and undue interference by the political class, the rampancy of the commission of the aforelisted crimes will be greatly reduced. However the Nigerian 1999 Constitution (as amended) does not give room for the creation of state police for now.
Section 214 of the Constitution is clear on this. Subsection (1) of this section says: *There shall be a police force for Nigeria which shall be known as the Nigeria Police Force and subject to the provision of this section no other police force shall be established for the Federation or any part thereof*
With this constitutional provision state police is prohibited. Until the constitution is so amended, it is my sincere believe that we can have recourse to community policing under the present police structure and such stop-gap security outfits like the recently created Southwest Security Network (in Southwest of Nigeria) code named Amotekun. The Amotekun Corps contrary to widely held notion is not a state police per se. It is a security outfit created in the wake of our recent security challenges in the Southwest and which is backed by the laws of the various States. And just like private security armed guards or security outfits, they are by law permitted to bear arms, detected and prevent crimes and then handover offenders to the regular police for prosecution.
So until our constitution is amended State police remains an idea.