Elder Statesman, and founding member of Arewa Consultative Forum, ACF, Alhaji Tanko Yakasai, on Thursday, faulted calls for the establishment of State Police, saying it would only destroy the nation’s democracy.
Yakasai who said this while making his presentation at the North West Zone Public Hearing on the Review of the 1999 Constitution in Kaduna, canvassed for the strengthening of Federal Police for optimal performance.
He explained that state governors would misuse the state police to favour and promote their interests and that of the political party in power.
According to him, Nigerians lost confidence in Local Government Elections because of the way governors use the State Independent Electoral Commissions to manipulate election results in their favour.
“They’ll use it to intimidate political opponents in their respective states,” he said.
“The same will happen to the state police if created because they will be placed under the full control of state governments.”
Yakasai urged the Federal Government to recruit more police personnel to add to the existing 400,000 policemen across the country.
He argued that a well equipped federal police would serve a better purpose than creating state police.
“If the government increases their number to at least 600, 000 or more, it will tackle the security challenges in the country.
“The major problem is that the state government cannot afford to maintain the state police because of the financial implications.
“We had state police in the South-Western province during Akintola’s era and also in the Northern province under what we called Local Authority (LA) before it was abolished.
“We know how they were abused, and if we return them, they will destroy our democracy,” he said.
Yakasai called for the continuation of the three tiers of government with Federal, Regional and State governments.
He said the Federal Government should allocate more funds to regional governments and the states for faster development for devolution of powers.
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