From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Governors Forum has rejected the community policing initiative introduced by the Nigeria Police as part of measures to tackle rising insecurity across the country.

PDP governors described the community policing initiated by the Federal Government as incapable of addressing the security challenges in the country, saying even the recruitment process for its personnel has been politicised.

This was part of resolutions reached at a virtual meeting of the opposition governors held on Tuesday.
In a communique issued yesterday and signed by its chairman, Aminu Tambuwal, the PDP governors called for the decentralisation of the Nigeria police force, saying the time had come for the introduction of state police in the country given rising security challenges.

“The forum strongly recommends the decentralisation of the Nigeria Police Force and imperative introduction of the state police in Nigeria, as one of the solutions to stem the tide of insecurity ravaging the country. In addition, the forum requests Mr. President to convene a consultative meeting of Nigeria Police Council to appoint an Inspector of Police whether in acting or permanent capacity as envisaged under the 1999 Constitution.”
The governors, while congratulating the newly appointed service chiefs, called for total overhauling of the national security architecture.

“It is worthy of note that the newly introduced community policing infrastructure is already being implemented more in breach. The current Nigeria Police Act envisaged that community policing should serve as a decentralised measure of grass roots policing and various roles were assigned to various parties, including the governors of the states.
Unfortunately, in the Constitution and operationalisation of the community policing activities in the various states so far, partisanship has taken over the recruitment process. We no longer have faith in the neutrality and capacity of the community policing system to serve the purposes envisaged under the new police Act, we therefore call on the Police authorities to sanitise the system.”

The meeting had in attendance governors Aminu Tambuwal, Sokoto State; Okezie Ikpeazu, Abia State; Bala Mohammed, Bauchi State; Duoye Diri , Bayelsa State, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, Enugu State; Seyi Makinde, Oyo State and Darius Dickson Ishaku, Taraba State.

Source

“The forum strongly recommends the decentralisation of the Nigeria Police Force and imperative introduction of the state police in Nigeria, as one of the solutions to stem the tide of insecurity ravaging the country. In addition, the forum requests Mr. President to convene a consultative meeting of Nigeria Police Council to appoint an Inspector of Police whether in acting or permanent capacity as envisaged under the 1999 Constitution.”
The governors, while congratulating the newly appointed service chiefs, called for total overhauling of the national security architecture.

This has always been obvious in Nigeria and Nigerians have shouted themselves hoarse over this issue for years.
I know that we have here in this forum, but it has always fallen on deaf ears.