Progressives Governors Forum DG highlights conditions for creation of state police

The Progressives Governors Forum (PGF) has stated that state police can only operate in Nigeria, under the supervision of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF).

This was contained in a statement issued on Friday by Dr Salihu Lukman, Director-General, Progressives Governors Forum (PGF) in Abuja.

According to Lukman, the idea of amending the Constitution to enable State Governments to establish state police was unavoidable.

“However, there are conditions that must be met before any decision to establish state police can serve as a good response to Nigeria’s security challenges.

“This includes the requirement that processes of regulating the operations of the state police should be centralised as part of the functions of the federal police.

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“Under that, for instance, issues of recruitment, qualification, background checks for those to be recruited, enforcement of disciplinary requirement, arms procurement and training for weapon handling among others, should be handled at the federal level,” he said.

He said the conditions were critical to ensuring uniform standards across the country.

He said that there was also a need for a new funding arrangement, once the creation of state police was considered, to ensure their effective operations.

Lukman said such funding arrangement should insulate the operations of NPF including the new state police to be established from the uncertainties surrounding public financial management.

“Efforts were also being made to promote community-led solutions, develop new security infrastructure and operations across land and maritime environments to address the underlying drivers of insecurity which were poverty and youth unemployment,” he said.

Lukman said that encouraging reports were already emerging from the various theatres of operations in the country, even though serious challenges still existed.

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