The pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, on Friday, commended President Bola Tinubu for his resolve to have State Police established in the country.
Afenifere, in a statement released by its National Publicity Secretary, Jare Ajayi, in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, said the organisation asserted that Nigeria is long overdue to have state police.
He said, “We are aware that President Tinubu is committed to having state police take-off as soon as possible, going by his pronouncements and the steps his government has taken on this issue.”
Ajayi added that Tinubu’s recent remarks on the issue in Makurdi and Abuja, respectively, further demonstrated his determination to have the project (state police) take off as soon as possible.
Afenifere stressed that Tinubu, who reaffirmed his earlier promise “to protect democracy, freedom and prosperity,” further declared that “we were elected to govern, not to bury people” about the dastard act of decimating human lives in the most barbaric manner as happened in Benue, Plateau, Nassarawa and other States.
“The value of human life is greater than that of a cow. We observe that the Makurdi declaration by Mr President was a reiteration of what he said the day before (on Tuesday) in Abuja at the Constitution Review Legislative Dialogue on National Security organized by the House of Representatives and the Office of the National Security Adviser.
“The president who described the 1999 Constitution as foundational to the country’s democracy was, however, emphatic that the document is outdated in dealing with ‘modern security threats.
“He had, through the Minister of Defence, Mohammed Badaru, maintained that the debate over State Police is no longer theoretical.
“It is grounded in the daily fears and live anxieties of Nigerians. Farmers are afraid to tend their fields, traders are unsure of safe passage, and communities are abandoned to self-help.”
Afenifere expressed the hope that state police would be established forthwith, “now that the majority of the State Governors and the Houses of Assembly in the country have keyed into it.”
Going into the memory lane, Ajayi stated that the country’s policing system was centralized with the establishment of the Nigerian Police Force in 1960.
“Ever since, the Force has been under the exclusive control of the Federal Government. For a few decades, agitations had been on to have the Police removed from the Exclusive Legislative List.
“There was the M. D. Yusuf-led Presidential Committee on Police Reform in 2006. There was another one headed by Mr. Parry Osayande in 2012. The two committees recommended the decentralization of the police. But various governments, including those that set the committees up, had not thought it fit to implement the recommendations.
“In 2021, the Governors of the 17 states in Southern Nigeria unanimously called for the creation of state police. They made their position known during their meetings first in Asaba and later in Lagos and Enugu, respectively.”
