By Ken Afor
Gombe State Governor and the current Chairman of the Northern Governors’ Forum (NGF), Muhammad Inuwa Yahaya, has expressed his support for the establishment of state police in Nigeria.
Yahaya voiced his support during an interaction with State House correspondents after a meeting he had with Vice President Kashim Shettima at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Tuesday.
He noted that the establishment of the model would bring security closer to the people and enable effective monitoring.
He said: “The State Police issue is a constitutional matter that will have to go through the National Assembly and eventually the States individually because it needs two-thirds of the State Assemblies in Nigeria to endorse whatever position.
“Personally and I believe the whole of the people of Gombe State are behind the idea of having State Police because that will take security closer to the people and we will be able to monitor more than somebody else monitoring or managing our own security.
“I think that is the vision of the President with regard to his support for that and even everybody across the broad spectrum of Nigerians. I believe when the bill goes to the National Assembly it will have easy passage through the States and very soon because inadvertently, it is the States that are managing security now since almost every State has its own arm of security that is supporting the various security agencies.
“Even though it is said that the Governors are the Chief Security Officers, the men on the ground commanding the security agencies, that is, the General Officers Commanding (GOC) or the Commissioner of Police, are answerable to their commanders here in Abuja but with State Police, we will be able to monitor the pulse and implement any decision hastily and there will be results.”
Governor Yahaya emphatically stated his firm conviction in supporting the creation of state police forces across Nigeria. He expressed his belief that other states would likely follow the same path and establish their own state police organizations.
The New Diplomat recalls that the governor’s backing for state police comes a few days after a former Governor of Plateau State, Jonah David Jang, urged those from Nigeria’s Middle Belt region to unite in pursuit of establishing state police forces to better secure their communities.
He said: “You cannot have security in a place where the people manning it do not know the area. I plead with the present set of governors that they should take a stand and request that the Constitution of Nigeria be amended for state police to be created for the good security of our people.”
