We Are Against State Police – Arewa

The pan-Northern socio-political organisation, Arewa Consultative Forum, on Monday expressed its opposition to the creation of state police.

The 36 state governors had endorsed the creation of state police to, according to them, address rising insecurity in the country.

The governors’ endorsement was a follow-up after Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo supported its creation.

However, the ACF noted that the creation of state police, as endorsed by the 36 state governors and Osinbajo, was a recipe for more crises.

The ACF’s Secretary General, Anthony Sani, in an interview with our correspondent in Kaduna, said if created, the various state governors would abuse it the way the state electoral commissions were being “bastardised.”

According to the ACF, sitting governors will use state police to torment perceived political enemies.

“Given the experiences where state governments use state electoral commissions and kill democracy at local government levels where no opposition party wins a seat in the local government council, there is the high possibility of state governments abusing state police with dire consequences, especially in states with many ethnic groups and religions,” the ACF scribe said.

The ACF, he said, was opposed to state police because the Forum sees the problems of police to lie in the lack of training, lack of equipment and also due to insufficient number of personnel.

He argued further that given the paucity of resources, it would not be good judgement to saddle states with additional responsibilities of state police.

He said the northern body believes that these problems could not be solved through the multiplication of security agencies.