ABUJA/Nigeria: Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Chieftain, Chief Sunny Onuesoke has demanded that the country is overdue with the issue of state police as the country as he condemns Acting Inspector General of Police (IGP) Mohammed Adamu claimed that the police is overwhelmed by the level of insecurity in the country.
Speaking to journalists at Abuja Onuesoke who described the statement of the IGP as sign of impending total breakdown of law and order in Nigeria stressing that the problems of the present policing in the country are foundational, systemic, insensitive and dishonest and a carryover from the regimes of military juntas of the past where repression was more paramount than the security of lives and property.
According to him, “Policing was never meant to be a federal function in the first place. Until now all we have been doing is kicking the can further down the road. It’s time to muster up the will, courage and integrity, to begin to seek ways to return this function to its rightful place which in the hands of the people to choose and select what works for them and how to police themselves.”
He commended the Acting IGP for showing respect to NASS by responding to their invitation and explaining the true situation of the insecurity in the state and the inability of his men to combat it because of lack of weapons, funds and personnel.
Onuesoke advised that now that the IGP has come out to explain his short comings, the NASS should sponsor a supplementary budget to provide the necessary support to the police if we are serious about reversing the trend of growing insecurity in the land.
The PDP Chieftain disclosed that the only solution to the insecurity problem is state and local government policing.
He said it is a failure for someone to stay in Abuja and take security decision for all the 36 states at the same time.
Onuesoke pointed out that there is no way out of this vexing issue of insecurity other than to decentralise the police, stressing that one cannot understand why the Governor of a State should be addressed as the Chief Security Officer of his State while the police are not under his exclusive control.
“As long as the State Governors should be responsible for the overall security of their States, the Federal government must do the needful. Keep the Federal Police as well as allow the State Police to be created and co-exist with the Federal Police. Equally, all the stolen money retrieved by the Federal Government from the treasury looters should be used to fully equip the two tiers of the Police,” he suggested.
