Mary Onyia
The majority of the 36 state governors, at their National Economic Council, NEC, meeting Thursday, approved the creation of state police to tackle the disturbing issue of insecurity in the country.
The NEC members who met at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, suggested revisiting the issue of the state police at the next meeting scheduled for January 2025.
Briefing journalists after the NEC meeting chaired by Vice President Kashim Shettima, Kaduna State governor, Uba Sani disclosed that 36 states submitted their recommendations with most of the governors affirming the creation of state police.
Sani posited that the final decision on the matter would be taken at the next meeting.
“Today, one of the discussions we had at the NEC meeting was the update on the creation of state police. As you are aware, there was a submission by States toward the establishment of state police,” Sani said.
“Today, about 36 states have already endorsed the establishment of state police in Nigeria. And I can say here that from what is available, virtually most of the states are in agreement with the establishment of state police in Nigeria.
“But today, the council decided to step down the discussion until the next council meeting, because we need to write a report from the secretariat. After the report, there would be a deliberation at the next NEC meeting in January.”
He noted that the Secretariate has agreed to further stakeholder engagement to address some grey areas despite the resolutions reached at the last NEC meeting.
He said: “So, all we are saying here is that 36 states have made their submission, and many states are in agreement for the creation of, state police, considering that virtually every state has their peculiarity in terms of the problem we are having of insecurity in our states.
“Knowing fully well that we have a lot of ungoverned space in Nigeria, and also that we have a lot of deficit in terms of numbers of boots on the ground, looking at the fact that a lot of security agencies, the police, the army, and other relevant security agencies have no personnel to cover all the government space, that is the reason why most of us agreed that establishment of state police in Nigeria is the way forward toward addressing the problem insecurity in our own country.”