officer displaying the crest of the Nigeria Police Force. PHOTO:
Sodiq Adelakun/Channels TV
A majority of the personnel of the Nigeria Police Force
are not engaged in police duty, despite the shortage of manpower in
the force.
This is the position of Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State
who is worried about the rate of insecurity in the country.
Speaking during his appearance on Channels Television’s
Politics Today on Monday, the governor insisted that
decentralising the police was the way to go for Nigeria.
“We have always made a very strong argument that one centralised
police in a federation does not work; Nigeria is the only country
in the world that is a federation that has only one police
force.
“We have made the argument that states should be allowed to have
their own police and even the local governments should be allowed
to have community policing,” Governor El-Rufai stated.
He added, “The number of policemen we have in Nigeria is
inadequate, it is less than half of what we need and a large
percentage of them are engaged in non-police duties like carrying
handbags of the wives of important people.
“We need to have a greater footprint of police in Nigeria and
the only way to achieve that in a fast track manner is to amend the
Constitution and put policing on the concurrent list as recommended
by the APC True Federalism Committee so that we have more
policemen.”
Governors Are Frustrated
The governor decried that it was only in Nigeria among other
countries in the world where a federation has only one police
force.
He said the running cost of the police, including the provision
of funds for vehicles, fuel, and communication, among others was
the responsibility of the state governments.
Governor El-Rufai also condemned the situation in which
governors have very limited or no control over the affairs of the
police in their states.
He said, “I am frustrated in my state, many governors are
frustrated in their states; we are called chief security officers
only in name, we have no control over cohesive instruments of the
state.
“We are almost helpless. The #EndSARS protest clearly showed the
limit to the control of governors over the police and the
military.”
Read more https://swordpress.com.ng/2020/12/01/many-policemen-carrying-handbags-for-vips-wives-says-el-rufai/