…Say Nigeria not mature for it
The former Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Sunday Ehindaro has lend his voice against the creation of state police as being clamoured for in some quarters.
Ehindaro who made his opposition of the creation of state police known in a comment at the 2017 Inspector-General of Police Public Lecture on Security held in Lagos last Friday said that Nigeria was not ripe for it.
According to him,”On the state police, I don’t think we are ripe for state police. In 1980 or thereafter, we experimented with state police, officers of DSP rank and below were sent to their states of origin to see what will be the result but the result was a disaster.
“First, there were states that could not have enough personnel, there were states which had more personnel but the important thing is that we cannot get justice in those states where you are not an indigene. What am I saying? It was difficult for somebody from say Kano to get justice in say Delta and vice versa in all the states. So, I think we not ripe”.
On his part, the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Kpotum Idris noted that from the professional point of view, he believed that there was no policeman that would want to work in his local government of origin.
Idris observed that it was so because the society was still at the elementary level as one’s relations would demand him to do magic when they were involved in a case whereas the officers professional calling would not allow that.
“So, you find yourself trying to struggle between your professional requirements and the community requirements and that is one of the challenges a police officer face when you deploy him in his locality. Only few police officers will request you to post them to their local government and these are some of the challenges and because of this, getting a policeman to work in their local communities, it always give us a challenge.
“We have true it several times but just like my senior colleague said, Retired IGP Ehindaro, we have tried it before during the government of IBB where police officers from certain ranks were deployed back to their local governments and we have seen the effect of that.
“One of the major stations in Kaduna state where we have one of the major communal clashes is the issue of policemen finding themselves either how to follow their local community against their perceived adversaries. We are not matured for state police and I think I maintain that position”, he said.
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