The much talked about state police as a possible panacea to the challenge of insecurity in Nigeria may be far from being realized going by reservations made recently by Senator Adamu Aliero.
The former governor of Kebbi State, now representing Kebbi Central at the 10th Senate lamented the inadequate legislative support to bring the idea to fruition. According to him: ‘We even tried to amend the constitution so that it will be possible to have state police…. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get the required number of senators and house of assembly members across the country that will amend the constitution; so, for now, State Police won’t work… What we are going to have is, at best, a voluntary arrangement by citizens to assist the security agencies in the country.’ Senator Aliero who is also a former Minister of the FCT assured that they will nonetheless endeavor to get ‘volunteers that will work cooperatively on collaborating with the Police and other security agencies to combat the insecurity situation in Nigeria’. He acknowledged that Nigeria does not have enough Police officers on ground but there is a ‘large number of volunteers that are willing to assist the police; that are willing to work hand in hand with the police to ensure that activities of bandits are stamped out and insurgency, particularly in the north east is also contained’. Aliero is particularly bothered that insurgents have moved from the North-East to the North-West and North-Central and have wreaked gross havoc in these two regions. The lawmaker is full of praises for the police, the army, and the DSS for their tremendous efforts at decimating and neutralizing the Ansarudeen in Nasarawa and Niger States. He however observed that the dislodged elements are now gradually resurfacing in the North-Central region of the country. Finally, Senator Muhammad Adamu Aliero remarked further that while the country is still at war with banditry and insurgency, ‘President Bola Ahmed Tinubu deserves some commendation as he is indeed doing the right thing by allocating more resources to the security agencies to fight both insurgents and the bandits.’
