Nigeria requires state police to overcome security challenges – Akeredolu

The Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, on Monday renewed the call for state police as the ultimate solution to the country’s security challenges.

Akeredolu, who stated this in a Channels Television programme, Politics Today, also dismissed reports on the arrest of some suspected attackers of St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo local government area of the state.

Gunmen on June 5 killed 40 worshippers during an attack on the church.

The governor insisted that state police was what Nigeria required to overcome its security challenges.

The Southern Governors’ Forum and other groups, including the Afenifere, Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), and Ohanaeze Ndigbo, had in the past urged the Federal Government to take another look at the demand for the establishment of state police by the federating units.

He said: “State police is what we should do for us to get to where we are going.”

READ ALSO: Akeredolu backs Zamfara govt over calls for self-defence, reiterates clamour for state police

“The states are not supposed to be as powerless as they are. What we should prioritize today is state police. The state will fund its police, and they’ll have the duty to protect their people.

“The people in the National Assembly have a duty here. The federal police is overstretched.

“If you ask me about what I think, I will say it is a trilogy that is operating in our Forests and causing problems. We have the Boko Haram insurgents, Fulani herdsmen, and followed by bandits.

“These are the things happening, we know it. But because of the vastness of our Forests, they are able to hibernate.

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