From Victor Osula, Abuja
The 36 States of Nigeria have made their views known about the establishment of State Police, to boost security of lives and property in their various States.
Briefing newsmen at the end of Thursday’s meeting of the National Economic Council (NEC) chaired by Vice president Kashim Shettima, Kaduna State governor, Uba Sani, confirmed that the governors have submitted their recommendations with a majority favourably disposed to the creation of state police.
He said, “Today, one of the discussions we had at the NEC meeting was the update on the creation of state police. As you are aware, there was a submission by States toward the establishment of state police.
“Today, about 36 states have already made their submission for establishing state police in Nigeria. And I can say here that from what is available, virtually most of the states are in agreement with the establishment of state police in Nigeria.
“But today, the council decided to step down the discussion until the next council meeting, because we need to come up with a report from the secretariat. And after the report, there will be deliberation at the next NEC meeting that is likely taking place in January. And not only that, there’s also a resolution in the last NEC meeting, which today the Secretariate have also agreed on that there will be further stakeholder engagement after the panel and deliberation by the members of the NEC.
“So, all we are saying here is that 36 states have made their own submission, and many states are in agreement for the establishment of state police, considering the fact that virtually every state has their peculiarity in terms of the problem we are having of insecurity in our own states.
“Knowing fully well that we have a lot of ungoverned space in Nigeria, and also that we have a lot of deficit in terms of number of boots on ground, looking at the fact that a lot of security agencies, the police, the army and other relevant security agencies have no personnel to cover all the government space, that is the reason why most of us agreed that establishment of state police in Nigeria is the way forward toward addressing the problem insecurity in our own country.”
Sani also said the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) is yet to make its submission on the matter.
“It is 36 states that have submitted, minus FCT. FCT is not a state. They explain why they have not submitted. But 36 states have all submitted their position on state police, and I want to say here clearly that most of us are in agreement with the establishment of State Police”, he added.
