Date Published: 07/01/11

Akpabio advocates return of State Police

The Akwa Ibom State Governor, Godswill Akpabio, at the weekend, proposed the return of Nigeria to state and community policing.

The governor said community policing, which was in operation in the first republic, was effective in containing crime at the local level, since, according to him, the responsibility of guaranteeing security at that level was directly in the hands of chief executives of each region.

Akpabio made this submission in Abuja at a meeting with newsmen, stating that most state governors today are in support of return to state police, given the increasing level of breakdown of law and order in most parts of Nigeria.

The governor stated that community system in Nigeria would enhance the operation of state police, as such could promote the art of effective intelligence-gathering which he noted would make the police more pro-active.

He said in every community in Nigeria, the people usually find it easy to spot strange individuals and occurrences, since almost everyone could easily trace and track suspicious movements and then report their findings to community heads.

He said, “As far as security is concerned, the main initiative rests with the federal government. What we, as governors, are pleading is that we decentralise control of security. We must have state police and place security at the front burner during campaigns.

“When I mount the podium for campaign, I should be able to tell the electorate that I am capable of guaranteeing their security. I should tell them that if I am directly in charge of security, I will minimise armed robbery and address the problem of kidnapping. I have to have the apparatus of control of security to be able to do that.

“But in the present system that we operate, a Nigerian governor who is the chief security officer of a state is like a General without troop. Can that General be effective? When the cases of kidnapping were raging, who controls the apparatus of checking kidnapping? Is it not the Federal Government? The Commissioner of Police they posted to states cannot be controlled by the governor. In some cases, they bring the most inefficient ones to you and then you are helpless.

“In the First Republic, we had an effective constitution. We had regionalism in practice and you have a parliamentary system which allows you to contest elections as long as you remain the best option.

But we are now in a Presidential system which allows you only two terms. Whether a governor likes it or not, he must leave at the end of his second tenure.

“The constitution has taken away the power from a governor to work. Community policing to me is the answer because through that, you can easily gather intelligence. And intelligence-gathering is key in making the police pro-active, so that you nip a crisis in the bud before they break out.

“When you go to a community, everybody knows the next man in and out. So they can easily report strange things they observe to the police. But if you bring someone who does not speak a language and understand a terrain to serve as a Police Commissioner, where will he start from?”