State Police An Avenue For Some Govs To Oppress Opponents – Falana

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN),Femi Falana on Friday, disclosed that some state governors will use state police as a means of oppression.

Falana who stated this in an interview on Channels Television, said there must be proper guarantees under the law to prevent situations where governors use police apparatus to intimidate and oppress political opponents.

Policing according to him has been decentralized in the country as residential estates and communities have private security outfits, with personnel armed with different weapons guarding inhabitants of such communities.

He called for a clear definition on the jurisdictions of state police to prevent inter-rivalry and more clashes between security agents, adding that state police must be a people-police service and not a government-centred one.

According to to him, the success of the country’s policing system will depend on it is managed.

“Unfortunately, our governors have allowed the Nigeria Police Force to become the Federal Government Police Force hence the demand for state police.

“Under Section 216 of the Constitution, the President of the Republic cannot appoint or remove an Inspector General of Police without consulting the Nigeria Police Council,” he added.

Falana said though there are other regular security council meetings in the country, the Nigeria Police Council has not been meeting.

He said, “We must go back to the provisions of the Constitution. It’s not unusual in a federation to have federal government police and state police but again, we have to go back to the drawing table and finetune our policies before we have state police. We must assure our people.”