Adaramodu: Safety Valves In Place To Ensure State Police Not Used For Personal, Partisan Agenda
The Chairman, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Yemi Adaramodu, has assured Nigerians that safeguards are in place to prevent the proposed state police from being used for personal, religious, or partisan interests.
“Now, when we talk about abuse, yes, we consider it like any other concern of Nigerians. When it is perceived that a governor or whoever is using that state police maybe to pursue either partisan agenda, or religious agenda, or sectoral or sectional agenda, then the federal police will come in, and then the president, with the National Assembly, will now see it to it. These are safety valves that curtail anybody who wants to use the state police for personal agenda. So, there is no way it can be used for personal agenda,” he assured.
As a measure of preventing the abuse of state police, the senator explained that governors will not have sole authority over the appointment of state police commissioners, as recommendations will be reviewed by the Federal Police Service Commission, which will assess qualifications before approval.
“Then we now say, as one of those safeguards, that state police commissioners will not be appointed solely by the state governors. It will go back to a Federal Police Service Commission, which will look at the resume and the profile of whichever policeman that is going to become the Inspector of the state police command,” he explained.
He added that state policing will address key challenges in recruitment, training, and operational efficiency by ensuring officers are drawn from local communities with better knowledge of their environments and stronger accountability.
“Areas where we have serious and very pertinent problems in Nigerian police is, one, recruitment. Now, recruitment, once it is done in the local areas, which we now, let’s say, state. We have more policemen and women recruited. We have them to be recruited among the locals who understand the terrain where they are going to operate. It means that we have now taken policing to the doorsteps of everyone in the local areas. That means that one is already cured,” he noted.
Reiterating that localised policing will enhance security response, Senator Adaramodu said officers familiar with their communities will act faster without waiting for centralised approvals.
“If a police commissioner is sent from the federal level and only follows orders from Abuja, it can delay action when a governor gives urgent security instructions, leaving the state to find other ways to respond. So definitely, that state governor, we need to resort to self-help, we need to resort to whatever means that he can make sure that he can help his people.
“With state police, this will not happen again, because you now have a police commissioner who is your own, who comes from your place, who knows the ground, who knows the environment, who knows what to do, that you can call any time.
“Especially when you are deploying him to do what he is supposed to do, when it is not going to be a partisan assignment that you are giving to him, it’s not religious, it’s not a political assignment that you are giving to him. You are giving him an assignment to stamp out insecurity in your area. Definitely, that policeman, the police commissioner will wake up to it and then do the needful,” he explained.
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