- Explains why creation of state police, more security agencies won’t end insecurity in Nigeria
A retired Assistant Inspector General of Police, Fimihan Adeoye, has narrated how politicians and political office holders allegedly frustrate efforts at tackling insecurity in the country.
He said that most politicians groom criminals and arm them with guns, especially during elections, noting that they discharge them without collecting the weapons, which the criminals use in terrorising the nation.
In an interview in Osogbo, Adeoye, a former Commissioner of Police in Osun State, lamented that the Nigeria Police Force has been short-staffed and poorly funded, explaining that the security agency needs support.
According to him, the rate of crimes in rural communities has been worsening, adding that the inability of police to gather intelligence has been contributing negatively to the fight against insurgency and insecurity generally.
The retired AIG stated, “The security situation in the country is evident and open to everybody. It is a fact that the threat to security has increased tremendously. The threats have moved from what we used to call the urban areas to the interior and the problem is that in the recent time, we were noticing the movement of economic activities from the urban to the rural areas but the status of security in the rural area has not been enhanced. There is no disputing the fact that insecurity has been worsening in the last 10 years.”
Explaining how the politicians fuel crimes and insecurity across the country, the former police chief disclosed that the robbery rate always decreases whenever politicians hire thugs for elections but it increases after polls.
“The politicians are employing thugs to achieve their selfish interests and as soon as elections are over, they discharge these guys. When I was the AIG in Owo, we used to compare notes with other colleagues. We discovered that the criminals are engaged by their political fathers and politicians during elections. The rate of bank robberies decreased during elections.
There is also the economic side to this insecurity. If you look around, there are no jobs in the country and youths are committing crimes to make ends meet. To make matters worse, parents no longer question their children on their sources of wealth,” he lamented.
Identifying intelligence gathering as one of the solutions to insecurity, Adeoye said insecurity has been difficult to tackle because some politicians see themselves as above the law, expressing worry that if such an attitude should be introduced to the state police when fully implemented, nothing different would be achieved.
According to him, “The law is said to be a respecter of nobody. It is not as if we don’t have law to stem this problem, the problem is enforcement. There are many people that seem to be above the law. The impression politicians are giving us is that they are above the law and this will continue until those saddled with the responsibility of enforcing the law do the needful. Sometimes, the law enforcement agencies do their job by arresting criminals but the judiciary introduces some technicalities that will set them off the hook.
“The present law enforcement structure needs support. I won’t say they are overwhelmed but it is apparent that they need support for them to be able to discharge their mandate successfully. The support might also mean rejigging the police. It is evident that the creation of several law enforcement agencies is not the solution to our problem. Some people are even agitating for more. Everybody in Nigeria wants to wear a security uniform. Does wearing a uniform suggest that there is security? What have been the impacts of the several security agencies that we have? We know that one or two of these security agencies are not created based on national interest but to settle some personal interest.”
On the creation of state police, he said, “If approval is given to state police, that doesn’t mean that automatically an end will come to insecurity in Nigeria. The premise for the agitation was a faulty one. The premise is that governors are saying we lack control over the Police and DSS. That is the premise. The police are a creation of law and all activities of the police are regulated by law. I am disturbed if someone is saying ‘I don’t have control over the police’. The law should control the police and not individuals. Every activity of the police is regulated by law. As a CP, I don’t need the governor to tell me to arrest an armed robber and if that is done, I would not need any governor to ask me to release an armed robber. That is why we have the criminal procedure code and not for one individual to say I don’t have control over the police.
“The problem in Nigeria is not with the legislation, it is with the people. It is not that they don’t know what to do but they allow personal interest to override national interest. If we have state police and we continue this way, there won’t be any difference. It is not that I am not in support of state police. We have a lot of non-state actors and that is why I said police need support.”
Lamenting that the police force is grossly under-funded and staff-starved, the retired AIG disclosed that most policemen and women collect money from road users because they are not well catered for.
He said, “Policing is very expensive and funding it goes beyond just providing the remuneration for the personnel. One of the problems that the Nigeria Police is having today is very poor funding. Do you know that N30, 000 is being given to each police division for 30 days? What can that do? We need to sit down and think of how to effectively fund the police. It is terrible to give guns to people and do not give them sufficient money, they will find the money themselves.
“Before we rush to create state police, all the other factors must be put into consideration. That is why I said that creating state police is not an automatic solution to insecurity.”
