ABUJA—THE nation’s 36 state governors have temporarily patched up the crack in their unity and possible loss of their domineering influence with a resolution to seek more consultations on the establishment of state police.

Meanwhile, the Inspector General of Police Mohammed Abubakar, yesterday, expressed opposition to the establishment of state police saying that it would be used by the governors for political vendetta.

Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger State also yesterday, amplified reasons for the opposition of northern governors to the establishment of state police.

Contrary to claims that the divisive proposal for the establishment of state police led to the low attendance at the Wednesday night meeting of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, NGF, Vanguard learnt yesterday that the issue did not come up after all.

Governor Chibuke Amaechi, the Chairman of the NGF, Vanguard learnt, did not allow the issue to be discussed at the meeting which was attended by only ten governors and with eight others being represented by their deputies.

Governor Amaechi at the meeting was said to have ruled that the governors should go and do more consultations with stakeholders in order to allow a harmonious decision to be taken.

“Amaechi resolved that since the issue was becoming too cantankerous that the governors should go and do more consultations on the issue,” an associate of one of the governors present at the meeting told Vanguard last night.


From left; Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State, Governor Liyel Imoke of Cross River State, Governor Babangida Aliyu of Niger State, Governor Peter Obi of Anambra State and Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State and Chairman of Governors’ Forum, during a meeting of the governors in Abuja.

Prior to the meeting hosted by Governor Amaechi at the Rivers State Governor’s Lodge in Abuja, a sharp division had emerged among the governors after their northern colleagues broke out from an earlier initiative to push for the establishment of state police.

The absence of the Chairman of the Northern States Governors’ Forum, Dr. Babangida Aliyu of Niger State at the NGF meeting, chaired and hosted by his Rivers State colleague, Chibuke Amaechi had elicited fears of a sharp division in the ranks of the governors. The meeting which lasted barely 90 minutes also did not produce a communiqué.

Aliyu’s absence was despite the fact that he was in Abuja on the morning of the meeting and held a function in the Niger State Governor’s Lodge which is a stone throw away from where Amaechi hosted the meeting in the Rivers State Governor’s Lodge.

Aliyu was represented at the meeting by his deputy. Aliyu it was learnt departed immediately for Minna following the inauguration of a peace panel instituted by Northern States Governors to study the state of insecurity in the region to attend a function in Minna where he was expected to present vehicles and equipment to security agencies.

An aide of the governor told Vanguard, yesterday: ”We had to leave for Minna immediately after the inauguration because of a previous appointment in Minna where the governor was to give out some vehicles to the Police.”

An aide of one of the northern governors reasserting the opposition to state police said yesterday: “We all know how governors have been accused of intimidating their opponents and you can see it in the way the conduct of the local government elections have been done where opposition parties were not given a free hand.

“So, you can imagine what will happen if the governors now have police in their hands, they will not allow their opponents to even contest,” an associate of one of the governors told Vanguard last night.

Besides the fear of the state police being used as a tool of political oppression, the northern governors it is claimed, are being accused of wanting the status quo to continue on the fear that they may not have enough funds to establish state police.

Governors present at the meeting were those of Rivers, Ekiti; Ondo; Ebonyi; Kaduna; Sokoto; Akwa Ibom; Kogi and Kano while the Deputy-Governors were those of Abia, Delta; Adamawa; Bayelsa; Nasarawa; Imo; Oyo and Lagos.



http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/08/state-police-how-amaechi-averted-crisis-in-governors-forum/