Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana says some state governors will use state police as a means of oppression.
Falana stated this in an interview on Channels Television on Friday monitored by newsmen.
The legal luminary said there must be proper guarantees under the law to prevent situations where governors use police apparatus to intimidate and oppress political opponents.
According to him, policing has been decentralized in the country as residential estates and communities have private security outfits, with personnel armed with different weapons guarding inhabitants of such communities.
He said the jurisdictions of state police must be clearly defined to prevent inter-rivalry and more clashes between security agents, adding that state police must be a people-police service and not a government-centred one.
He explained that the success of the country’s policing system depends on its management.
“Unfortunately, our governors have allowed the Nigeria Police Force to become the Federal Government Police Force hence the demand for state police.
“Under Section 216 of the Constitution, the President of the Republic cannot appoint or remove an Inspector General of Police without consulting the Nigeria Police Council,” he added.
Falana said though there are other regular security council meetings in the country, the Nigeria Police Council has not been meeting.
He said, “We must go back to the provisions of the Constitution. It’s not unusual in a federation to have federal government police and state police but again, we have to go back to the drawing table and finetune our policies before we have state police. We must assure our people.”
The calls for state police have been on recently, with some governors and regional socio-political groups like Afenifere and Ohanaeze Ndigbo saying it would curb the menacing trend of kidnapping, banditry and sundry crimes.
