TI says Nigeria not ripe for state police

Transparency International on Tuesday said Nigeria was not ripe for state police.

The TI Head in Nigeria, Mr. Musa Rafsanjani, said this in an interview with one of our correspondents.

He said, “Even if Nigeria will have a state police, it is not yet time to hand over the entire security of states to the hands of these governors, some of whom cannot even pay workers’ salaries.

“The implication of having state police is that the entire security now rests on the states. We think that issue of security is so serious that we cannot give it to states which do not have infrastructure yet even in the areas of health and education.

“At the federal level, you still find overzealous policemen and police officers acting on the instructions of certain political office holders. When this impunity now flows down, what are we going to have? Most of the state Houses of Assembly have been undermined by the governors and the houses are not able to perform their constitutional responsibilities.

“We think that as good as the proposal of state police is, we cannot at this time hand over the security of the country to governors who have proved to be incompetent and nonchalant about the wellbeing of people and workers in their states.”

Source: Punch