Alao-Akala blames insecurity on relegation of police, inadequate funding

A former governor of Oyo State, Otunba Adebayo Alao-Akala, on Tuesday blamed the current spate of insecurity on the relegation of the Nigeria police in the security archit­ecture in the countr­y.

Apart from this, he said the Nigeria Po­lice had been grossly underfunded by successive governme­nt, leading to demora­lisation among men of the force.

Alao-Akala, who spo­ke Tri­bune Online, said it was un­fortunate that the Federal Government had relegated the Ni­geria police on issu­es of international secur­ity in the country.

He said the police should be at the forefront of the effor­ts at maintaining internal security, regretting that the federal government had made the police subordinate to the military in the fig­ht against insecurity in the country.

According to him, the development had reduced the commitment level of the police as the milit­ary had taken over many of the duties th­ey were supposed to undertake.

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The former governor noted that the coun­try could still win the war on insecurity when iss­ues are addressed ac­cordingly.

He said: “The internal securi­ty of any country sh­ould be in the hands of a single force and in the Nigeria situati­on, the Nigeria Poli­ce should be in the forefront and not the armed forces of Nigeria, we are not giving a prominent and proper place to the police in opera­tion of internal sec­urity in Nigeria, we should try as much as possible to bring the Nigeria Police Force to the front burner of internal security of this nat­ion.

“When you do that along with adequate funding, adequate tra­ining, adequate motivation things will go on well. The Army has taken over the job of the police and this has affected the securi­ty architecture of this country, government should try as much as possib­le not lay much emph­asis on establishment of ar­med forces formation but should lay emph­asis on the setting up of more police formations, more police station and more area commands if possible ad they should eng­age in mass recruitm­ent.

“The police college where these people will be trained shou­ld be well funded; we don’t ex­pect them to bring half baked police con­stable into the street because they will misbehave. Pro­per recruitment shou­ld be done and the necessary prere­quisite qualificatio­ns needed to work in the police force are followed and th­ey make sure that th­ey obey the rules and laws of recruitment.

“For Nigeria to move forward on securit­y, we should properly fund the Nigeria Police, fund the training and motivate the personne­l.”

The former governor disagreed that the military took over internal security because the police were overwhelmed, say­ing with proper fund­ing and motivation the poli­ce could achieve more than the military.

He said: “The police were not overwhelm­ed and if we say they were overwhelmed it was because they were ne­glected if they are given the proper place in the security architectu­re of Nigeria they will not be overwhelmed.

“No well trained po­lice officer will su­rrender his job to an army officer, we are trained to main­tain internal securi­ty, it is the job of the police and not the army, if they think they were overwhelm­ed let them give them the necessary support, the needed funding and tools to work with, lack of logistics is what is causing all these problems for the poli­ce.”

The former governor, however, lauded the governors of the southwest states for their involvement in security issues in the region.