Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) Chairman Abdulaziz Yari yesterday said creation of state police would help in addressing the spate of insecurity in the country.
Yari, who is Zamfara State Governor, stated this at the end of a two-day summit organised by the Senate Ad hoc Committee on Review of Current Security Infrastructure in Nigeria.
He said:, “Today, we have reiterated the position of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and the position of the security summit we held in August, that there is a need for the state police; we can say it is the only answer.”
The Vice President had during the opening of the summit last week drummed support for state police.
He had said: “We cannot realistically police a country the size of Nigeria centrally from Abuja. State police and other community policing methods are clearly the way to go.”
The governor said internal security was supposed to be handled and managed by the police, and that the police of today were inadequate.
“There are about four million people in Zamfara and we have fewer than 5,000 policemen.
“We in governance agree that we can find a way through which we can fine-tune the issue of state police,” he said.
On the cost implications, Yari explained: “It is not all the states that are supposed to have the state police, those that could should be able to have it.
“It is something we cannot take off at the same time. We were created differently.”
He said the issue of security was not something to play with, adding that the primary responsibility of any government is to ensure that lives and properties of citizens are protected.
“Many challenges of Nigerians for the past 10 years ranging from Boko Haram, cattle rustlers, armed banditry and militancy in the Niger Delta are dwindling the Nigerian economy and threatening the unity of the nation,” Yari said.