Delta PDP chieftain urges NASS to facilitate passage of State Police Bill

A Chieftain of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Delta State, Chief Sunny Onuesoke, has appealed to members of the National Assembly to facilitate the passage of the State Police Bill into law.

Onuesoke made the appeal in Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State during a workshop on Creation of State Police.

He said considering the recent level of threats to public security across the country, a resource to State Police seems a more attractive option.

He added that the centralised policing system in the country has been effective and it is only logical that other plausible options are considered.

The former PDP governorship aspirant argued that to properly address the security question in the country, there’s the need to tackle the touchy issue of State Police.

He stressed that the current centralised police structure in the country will continue to limit the capacity of states to effectively address security issues.

“Aside from the well-accepted philosophy that policing is essentially a local matter, every crime is local in nature.

“Hence, it is only rational to localise the police force. No matter its form, crime detection needs a local knowledge that State Police can better provide.

“Let’s face the fact. Nigeria is too large and complex to be policed centrally. In an ideal federal system, the issue of state police should not be a contentious matter, after all, in the First Republic, there were regional police and local police existing side by side the federal police.

“If we are really serious about overcoming current security challenges in the country, we need to re-examine the issue of State Police more earnestly and objectively,” Onuesoke posited.

The PDP Chieftain maintained that if state police formations came into existence, it would be more penetrative and widespread as well as more community-friendly relative to the NPF.

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He reiterated that since state governments now bore a reasonable percentage of the platforms and other logistics elements, it made much sense for them to be constitutionally allowed to establish, fund and operate police formations.

Onuesoke, who disagreed with the argument in some quarters that State Police is nothing but a recipe for anarchy as it could lead to abuse of power, argued that the reality, however, is that the present centralised policing arrangement has, over the years, equally been subjected to limitless abuse by the central authority.

“As a matter of fact, agitation for the creation of State Police should not be viewed as a partisan or an anti-Federal Government crusade.

“Neither can it be said to be the handiwork of mischief-makers or rabble-rousers.

“State Police is an important component of true federalism and emblem of the authority of governance since sovereignty is divided between the central authority and federating state authorities,” Onuesoke averred.

The social commentator further observed that the killings in the country, corruption in the police and the oppression of the common man had continued mainly because the federating states were not constitutionally allowed to recruit, train and equip enough manpower for the security of lives and property of citizens in their states.

According to the philanthropist, “The internal security of Nigeria depends on one man or woman, who sits in Abuja as the Inspector-General of Police.

“Nigeria is the only federated state practising centralised police system. I pray members of the National Assembly should pass the bill on time to put an end to the atrocities and oppression going on the country,” Onuesoke enthuse