Osun State governor, Mr Rauf Aregbesola, over the weekend advocated for the decentralisation of the Nigeria Police Force through a proper restructuring and reform to ensure effective zonal management, control and operation of the Police organisation in Nigeria.
He said Nigeria had grown beyond a centralised policing, saying the devolution of power must be encouraged in the Nigeria Police Force to strengthen the sector for greater productivity.‎
‎Aregbesola, who made the call while receiving the Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG), Mr Foluso Adebanjo in Osogbo said the restructuring of the police and the devolution of its control would go a long way to foster improvement in the system, promoting moral integrity and discipline in the affairs of all police officers and men.
The governor maintained that the complexity and diverse nature of policing in Nigeria have become worrisome, a development, he said requires urgent restructuring to promote effective zonal and state’s control of its administration and management.
According to him, “The essence of human urbanisation and socialisation is security. Therefore, it is a duty not only for government but also the people to support security agencies especially the police. Since the first obligation and responsibility of government remains security and maintenance of law and order, therefore, it behoves on any serious government to prioritise and guarantee the security of lives and property of the citizenry.”
“So, there can be civil service or public service without adequate security just as development lies on the security status of any society. All the social and physical infrastructures on any society could be measured by the level of security therein.”
“It is a duty to support the police, and it is in view of this that I strongly clamour for a restructuring of the Nigeria Police to enhance effectiveness and raise the standard of dedication and high sense of commitment to professional ethics, values and conducts.”
“It is a misnomer in a society like Nigeria for Commissioner of Police in a state to be directly answerable to Inspector General of Police in spite the fact that there is zonal Assistant Inspector General of Police in the zone to which such state emanates. Ideally, CP should be answerable to zonal commander (AIG), while it the duty of AIG to be responsible to IG. This would sanitise the system and instill the spirit of commitment and dedication into the system,” Aregbesola posited.
Earlier in his remark, the DIG, Mr Foluso Adebanjo described Osun as one of the states with lowest crime rate in Nigeria, saying the force has been monitoring the records of the state in the last few years, coupled “with the atmosphere of peace, the state is witnessing massive development of infrastructure”.
He said the visit was part of the routine security assessment, evaluation and sensitisation of the officers and men of the State and Zonal Commands of the Nigeria Police Force in the zone on the need to uphold professionalism, efficiency and discipline in the course of duty.‎
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