The immediate past deputy Senate president and senator representing Enugu West, Ike Ekweremadu, will tomorrow present before the Senate for first reading a bill for the creation of state police.
A copy of the bill sighted by the Tribune Online revealed that the bill seeks to decentralise the nation’s security architecture as it proposes the creation of federal police, state police, national police service commission, national police council and state police service commission for the states.
In the subsisting 1999 Constitution, the Nigeria Police Force is in the exclusive legislative list with provisions for only the Police Service Commission.
The bill proposed that the state police “shall be organised and administered in accordance with such provisions as may be prescribed by a law of the house of assembly of a state subject to the framework and guidelines established by an Act of the National Assembly.”
It is also proposed that a commissioner of police to serve a five-year tenure should be appointed by the state governor, subject to the confirmation of the state assembly and on the advice of the national police service commission.
To regulate the excesses of governors, the proposed state police service commission is expected to have a sustained interface with the central body for the federal police, the national police service commission to shield the state police commissioners from perceived overbearing posture and excesses of their respective governors.
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The bill reads in part: “The governor may give to the commissioner of police such lawful directives with respect to the maintenance and securing of public safety and public order as he may consider necessary, and the commissioner of police shall comply with those directives.
“Where the commissioner of police feels that any order given is unlawful or contradicts general policing standards or practise, he may request that the matter be referred to the state police service commission for review.
“The decision of the state police service commission shall be final and shall not be inquired into by any court.
“An Act of the National Assembly may prescribe a bi-annual certification review of the activities of state police by the national police service commission to ensure they meet up with approved national standards and guidelines of policing and their operations do not undermine national integrity, promote ethnic, tribal or sectional agenda or marginalise any segment of the society within the state.”
It also enunciates grounds for the removal of a state commissioner of police to include misconduct in the performance of his official duties, serious breach of policing standards, conviction of any offence by a court of law or tribunal, including administrative tribunals set up by the police authorities for internal disciplining of police officers, indictment by a judicial body or tribunal for corruption, fraud, embezzlement or other unacceptable conducts in office, mental incapacity, among others. It, however, gives a proviso that such a commissioner of police could only be relieved of his position by approval by a two-thirds majority of the house of assembly of a state.
The proposed bill equally offers details of the functions of the envisaged state police service commission.
Meanwhile, Senator Ekweremadu has dismissed the community policing being canvassed by the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, as a fraud.
Speaking on a Channels Television programme, ‘Hard Copy’ monitored by the Tribune Online at the weekend, the former deputy Senate president argued that community policing is a ploy to distract genuine agitation for state police, which he noted was a normal practice in every federal union.
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