ABUJA—-THE House of Representatives Tuesday approved the establishment of state police in the 36 states of the federation and Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, FCT.

The approval of state police was contained in a bill seeking to alter Section 214 of the constitution to provide for establishment of state and community police in the country which passed second reading in the House.

The Bill also seeks to replace the word “force” with “service” in its nomenclature.

Speaking in his lead debate, the Sponsor of the bill, Dada Awoyele, said that there was urgent need for an amendment to the 1999 Constitution to allow the government establishment of a State Police in all the States.

According to him, the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) as presently constituted was highly centralized and very far away from the people, adding that the alteration had become necessary given the rate of insecurity in the country.

kenny987:
They better remember to redirect FG allocation for d Police to the states before we hear that it failed because states are unable to pay salaries.
There should be full devolution of powers and divestment of unnecessary weight from the centre and it should be done wholly otherwise this piecemeal approach will be scuttled very easily.

DaudaAbu:


You will be surprised those state governors would squander the money

And still owe the police 3 - 6 mnths.

EasternActivist:
Long over due....
Even federal govt owe

TPAND:
States can't afford it at this critical point. This bill should be kept on hold

DaudaAbu:


Yes they owe but is it police they owe?

I dont want to imagine what someone carrying a gun can do when he is owed 3 - 6 months salary and some other allowances.




I just want to keep digging till i burst out to the other side of the earth

omonnakoda:
This has not been thought through fully .How will it be funded. Some states consume more police resources(and prison resources) than others at the expense of the FG ( Lagos particularly). Under the proposed arrangement will there be reallocation of resources from the centre and by what formula. If Lagos has to pay for its own policing I foresee a lot of hostility to non-indigenes and likely all police will be Yoruba,this will replicate across the country
There are other issues that need clarification will police be enforcing Sharia law e.g? Most likely they will. Apart from abuse by incumbent governors there are other potential risks which should not be a problem in a normal country but Nigeria is not a normal country
In summary good idea but implementation will be very tricky

EternalTruths:



Is not compulsory Lagos has a state police.

Many states need state police

Funlordjnr:




Good god! Doomsday loading........



Na so so cultists, robbers, tribesmen, area boys, political thugs, oloshos, mistresses, cousins of the governors and personal assistants go constitute most of these state police departments be that!

ItsMeAboki:


Nigerians will regret this decision, some are currently celebrating without realising the implications. We already have rouge governors and empowering them with state police is a very dangerous move. Can anyone imagine the fate of someone running foul of such governor with so much power concentrated in his hands? It would be foolish to assume you would now have free and fair elections in states with the governor as incumbent. I can only see more politically motivated extrajudicially motivated killing, torture and arrests for more Nigerians together with abuse ethnic and religious divide - the police will be another ready tool to use at the whim of the chief executive and his commissioners - may God help us.
We are not yet matured for such .

ItsMeAboki:


Nigerians will regret this decision, some are currently celebrating without realising the implications. We already have rouge governors and empowering them with state police is a very dangerous move. Can anyone imagine the fate of someone running foul of such governor with so much power concentrated in his hands? It would be foolish to assume you would now have free and fair elections in states with the governor as incumbent. I can only see more politically motivated extrajudicially motivated killing, torture and arrests for more Nigerians together with abuse ethnic and religious divide - the police will be another ready tool to use at the whim of the chief executive and his commissioners - may God help us.
We are not yet matured for such .

ITbomb:
It's about time

I don't see why people should be afraid of state police if it is implemented properly.

Federal police will not be scrapped, so no reason to fear that state government would abuse the police powers.

If you feel a crime is not properly handled by the state police, the feds comes in. The federal police will always be there as oversight and will be more trained and sophisticated