…Describes Benue, Plateau killings As Barbaric

LAGOS – The pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, has commended President Bola Tinubu for his resolve to establish state police in the country.

Afenifere’s National Publicity Secretary, Comrade Jare Ajayi, in a press statement on Friday, noted that the organisation’s position is that Nigeria is long overdue to have state police.

The organisation also condemned the killings in Benue and Plateau States, describing them as barbaric.

The statement reads, “We’re aware that President Bola Tinubu is committed to having state police take-off as soon as possible going by his pronouncements and the steps his government has taken on this issue,” Ajayi stated.

According to Ajayi,  Tinubu’s recent remarks on the issue in Makurdi and Abuja further demonstrated his determination to have the project (state police) take off as soon as possible.

Afenifere recalled that Tinubu, while addressing a Town Hall meeting in Makurdi, Benue State on Wednesday, reiterated his commitment to having state police established in Nigeria. 

The President spoke during his visit to Benue State in the wake of the killing of over 200 people and burning of several houses in Yelwata, Guma local government area of the state by bandits.

The President who reaffirmed his earlier promise “to protect democracy, freedom and prosperity”, further declared that “We were elected to govern, not to bury people” in reference to the dastard act of decimating human lives in the most barbaric manner as happened in Benue, Plateau, Nassarawa etcetera.

Afenifere lauded the President for reminding everyone that “The value of human life is greater than that of a cow”. 

According to Afenifere, the Makurdi declaration by Mr. President was a reiteration of what he said the day before (Tuesday) in Abuja at the Constitution Review Legislative Dialogue on National Security organised by the House of Representatives and the Office of the National Security Adviser. 

The President who described the 1999 Constitution as foundational to the country’s democracy, was however emphatic that the document is outdated in dealing with ‘modern security threats’.

He had, through the Minister of Defence, Alhaji Mohammed Abubakar Badaru, maintained that the debate over State Police is no longer theoretical. 

“It’s grounded in the daily fears and live anxieties of Nigerians: farmers are afraid to tend their fields, traders unsure of safe passage and communities abandoned to self-help”.

Afenifere expressed the hope that state police would be established forthwith, “now that majority of the state governors and the Houses of Assembly in the country have keyed into it.”

“It would be recalled that the Chairman of the Conference of Speakers, Right Honourable Debo Ogundoyin, stated that the Houses of Assembly in Nigeria were ready to support constitutional amendments to enable state police to come to light.

He urged lawmakers in the National Assembly to ‘prioritize constitutional reforms to reshape Nigeria’s security framework for the benefit of present and future generations’.

Ogundoyin, who is the Oyo State House of Assembly Speaker, described the establishment of state police now as “a patriotic and strategic necessity”.

In the words of the President at the Abuja Dialogue: “The pace of change in technology, in the complexity of security threats and in the dynamics of our federal structure has far outstripped the capacity of some constitutional provisions”.

To underscore the necessity of the desired constitutional change, the President declared that: “Our Constitution must evolve or risk becoming a danger to the very unity it was meant to protect”.

Going down memory lane, Ajayi stated that the country’s policing system was centralized with the establishment of the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) in 1960.

“Ever since, the Force has been under the exclusive control of the Federal Government. Since a few decades ago, agitations had been on to have Police removed from the Exclusive Legislative List. 

“There was the M. D. Yusuf-led Presidential Committee on Police Reform in 2006. There was another one headed by Mr. Parry Osayande in 2012.

“The two Committees recommended the decentralization of the Police. But various governments, including those that set the committees up, had not thought it fit to implement the recommendations.

“In 2021, the governors of the 17 states in Southern Nigeria unanimously called for the creation of state police. They made their position known during their meetings first in Asaba and later in Lagos and Enugu.

“States Governors, at a recent meeting of the Council of States, have also seen the need for the establishment of state police.

“In view of the concurrency of opinions on the need to have state police now among the national and state legislators as well as the Executive Arm of Government, it is hoped that State Police will take off very soon in Nigeria” Ajayi added.