ABUJA – Sequel to the recent killings of no fewer than two hundred persons in Barkin Ladi and Ryiom areas of Plateau state by gunmen, the Senate yesterday commenced the amendment of the Act Establishing the Nigeria Police Force (NPC) with a view to constitutionally create State Police.
Campaign for the creation of state police has been on over time owing to the perception among many Nigerians that the police is currently overwhelmed by the myriad of security challenges bedeviling the country.
This campaign for state police resonated in the Senate yesterday during the debate on the motion sponsored by Jonah Jang (PDP, Plateau) in which he drew the attention of the senate to the recent killing of about 200 persons in the Plateau villages.
Moving the motion of urgent national importance, Jonah Jang recalled how the herdsmen invaded the villages and killed people, adding that the efforts of the police to address the insecurity was not good enough, as many people were killed helplessly.
Justifying the creation of state police as it is being practiced in other developed climes, Jang said in the USA, even the universities have their independent police structures.
According to him, the fear that the governors will abuse the state police is unfounded because any sitting president who wants can also abuse the federal police, but pointed out that creating state police will solve more problems than it will create.
He observed that as it was the case during his tenure as governor of Plateau, the states governors do not control the police commissioners because they take instructions from the federal Inspector General of Police who sits in Abuja and is appointed by the President, despite being the supposed chief security officers of their respective states but they don’t have the control over the government security apparatus.
Speaking on the contrary, the senator representing Zamfara Central on the All Progressive Congress (APC) platform, Kabir Marafa, cautioned against giving religious coloration to the killings of innocent Nigerians, adding that in Zamfara state, which is ninety nine percent Christians, people are also killed.
To this end, he said the killers should be addressed as criminals and not with any tag that will portray them as one religion fighting another.
He pointed out that in Plateau state which is predominantly Christian, whenever there is killing, it is Christians that would be killed.
In his brief remarks, senator Adesola Adeyeye, said the president federal police has become a colossal failure, urging the senate to urgently take action towards creating a state police structure irrespective of whether the executive likes it or not.
However, other senators who spoke were of the view that the federal police is increasingly becoming overwhelmed by the insecurity, adding that the State Police has become expedient, even as they dismissed the fears that the state governors will abuse it if it is created.
The Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekwerenmadu, also called for the immediate passage of the Bill on Peace and Conflict Resolution Committee, to help in resolving the killings across the country, in addition to other security challenges.
Other resolutions adopted by the senate was that the senate committee on Constitution Amendment should include the amendment of the Act establishing the Nigerian police with a view to addressing the inefficiency in the federal police.
