Falana warns some governors may use state police to repress their citizens.
Falana cautions that certain governors will use state police as a tool for tyranny.
As debate over state police grows, human rights lawyer Femi Falana has warned that sufficient legal safeguards must be in place to prevent governors from using police equipment to harass and oppress political opponents.
According to Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), policing in the country is currently decentralised, with private security organisations guarding residents with various weaponry.
Falana hailed state police as an idea whose time has come, but stated jurisdictions must be clearly defined to avoid inter-rivalry and more disputes between security personnel, and that state police must be a people-focused agency rather than a government-centered one.
He stated that having one federal police force is not necessarily contradictory to federalism, as the system’s success is dependent on its management. “Unfortunately, our governors have enabled the Nigeria Police Force to become the Federal Government Police Force, resulting in the need for state police,” he stated.
“Under Section 216 of the Constitution, the President of the Republic may neither nominate or dismiss an Inspector General of Police without first consulting the Nigeria Police Council.”
“36 of the 39 members are state chief executives. It is a council in which members should discuss the amount of police officers in each state, how they should be funded, and how they should be handled and administered. But what’s happened?
He stated that, while other security councils meet on a regular basis throughout the country, the Nigeria Police Council does not. “We must return to the terms of the constitution. It is not uncommon in a federation to have federal government police and state police, but we must go back to the drawing board and fine-tune our rules before implementing state police. We must reassure our people.
“There are governors in Nigeria who will convert state police into instruments of oppression, just as the federal police are currently being used as such.
“So, we must agree that in a Federation, each tier of government and federating unit should be able to enforce its own laws with its own security apparatus, but you must guarantee that political opponents will not be intimidated or oppressed by federal, state, or local government police.
“Right now, we delude ourselves; we already have decentralisation of police; every community and estate has its own private security arrangements, the bulk of which are armed.”
Social commentary on state police continues to dominate public conversation, with certain governors and regional sociopolitical groups such as Afenifere and Ohanaeze Ndigbo claiming it will help to stop the frightening trend of kidnapping, banditry, and other criminal activity.
There are already state-owned security outfits in about 23 states, including the Civilian Joint Task Force in Borno State, the Amotekun Corps in the South-West geopolitical zone, Ebube Agu in the South-East, Benue Guards in the North Central State, Community Protection Guards in Zamfara, the Community Watch Corps in Katsina, the Neighbourhood Watch in Plateau, and state-backed vigilante outfits in Niger and Bauchi, among others.
However, these outfits have been hampered in their operations for a variety of reasons, including a lack of a licence to carry assault rifles and superior weapons to confront deadly insurgents and criminals, but governors are confident that with constitutional backing, these outfits will reach their full potential.
To that end, in mid-February, President Bola Tinubu and the governors of the 36 states reached an agreement on state police to address the country’s rising security concerns.
About a month later, 16 governors submitted recommendations to the National Economic Council (NEC) indicating their support for the establishment of state police and amending the 1999 Constitution to allow for it. The choices of the remaining 20 governors are still expected.