A Chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party in Delta State, Olorogun Dave Okorare, has urged the National Assembly to jettison the plan for the establishment of state police in the
country.
Okorare argued that allowing the establishment of state police would be a grave error on the part of the nation’s lawmakers that would be too late to correct, if the proposal was allowed to scale through at the National Assembly.
Speaking with our correspondent in Benin, the Edo State capital, the PDP chieftain argued that it would be impossible for the governors, who
had failed in managing their various state independent electoral commissions to conduct credible local government elections, to successfully run armed personnel of the proposed state police
forces.
He further contended that Nigeria was not mature for the operations of police by the various state governments.
He said, “The governors have not been able manage the State Independent Electoral Commissions or conduct free, fair and acceptable elections across the states, not to talk of empowering them to manage armed state police. The governors have shown in many ways that they cannot manage state police, and so we should not make the mistake of establishing state police.
”This would not only give them (governors) the opportunity to recruit their thugs into the force, which they can use to also unleash mayhem on their perceived enemies and those with dissenting voices.”
Okorare, however, suggested enhanced vigilance corps under the strict supervision of the police, especially in their conduct and usage of arms.
He said, “And the enhanced vigilance corps should have a structure from the local government to the state. Otherwise, we would be heading for a total and irredeemable collapse of the system.
“The constitution should not be amended to allow for the establishment of state police. Also, the Nigeria Police should be well funded, equipped and structured to make the zones
autonomous in the implementation of orders and make the center weak. The center should be for policy formulation and management.”
