Insecurity: Atiku Supports Community, State And Zonal Policing To Complement Federal Policing

Alhaji Atiku Abubakar

 

 

Former Vice -President and presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2019 general election, Atiku Abibkar has thrown his support for community, zonal and state police in the country.

He said that as enshrined in the Nigerian constitution, the primary responsibility of government, at any level, is the protection of lives and property of the citizen.

“In carrying out this function, the state employs different layers of measures to ensure effective and efficient policing, he said, adding that, “It is without doubt that in the past decade particularly, the current policing administration in our dear country had been stretched to its limits and it is obvious that the reality of our domestic security upheaval will demand of us to recalibrate our police systems.

Drawing examples from the First Republic, when policing was done federally with each native authority and region having some mechanisms to deal with little upsets that were the security concerns of those times, he said that present day realities shows  there is hardly any state of the federation that does not contend with some type of security challenges.

He said, “Because our security challenges are diverse in forms and impacts, it is thus incumbent that centrally controlled police architecture cannot exclusively deal with those challenges.

“The time is ripe to seriously confront the reality of insecurity in the country by addressing the urgency of introducing state police, zonal police and community policing to complement the efforts of the current federal police.

“It is obvious that current levels of insecurity in the country are giving rise to major initiatives such as Amotekun and the issue need not be controversial in the first place.

“The police are likely to be more effective if they constantly operate in the same local community or local government because such closeness might create a bond with the local people, thereby enabling community cooperation and participation that would engender proactive outcomes in crime prevention.

According to him, the issue of security in a diverse, multi-ethnic country like Nigeria should not be politicised and monopolised in the face of “our current alarming security challenges characterised by the fear of even travelling on our highways by the citizens who might be intercepted by kidnappers and taken hostage for ransom.

He however cautioned that local policing shouldn’t be mistaken for an effort to hijack the role of the federal police or a competition with the federal government.

“The police are more likely to be effective in areas where they are well known and trusted by the local communities who in turn are willing to share information about known criminals and criminal activities, thereby foiling those crimes before they are even carried out.