State Police: Femi Falana Sends Strong Message to Tinubu’s Govt

• The debate on state police has continued to top discussions in the polity and Femi Falana has decided to make his position known
• The legal luminary has however warned against the idea while noting it would be used by some state governors against the will of their people
• Falana highlighted other security outfits that can replace state police in states within Nigeria, as he noted that the people need to be assured before the move is implemented

Legit.ng journalist Esther Odili has over two years of experience covering political parties and movements.

Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana has expressed deep concern about the establishment of state police in Nigeria.

Although Falana backed the idea of state policing, he warned that there must be proper guarantees under the law to prevent situations where governors use police apparatus to intimidate and oppress political opponents.

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Falana: "State govt might use state police against the people"

Falana, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), gave this warning when he appeared as guest of Inside Sources With Laolu Akande aired on Channels Television on Friday, April 5.

He highlighted that policing in the country has already been decentralized to some extent, with residential estates and communities employing private security outfits equipped with various weapons to protect their residents.

While Falana acknowledged that state police is timely, he stressed the importance of clearly defining jurisdictions to avoid conflicts and rivalries between security agencies.

Falana task govt on working in line with the constitution

He said though there are other regular security council meetings in the country, the Nigeria Police Council has not been meeting but the decisions of the government should be backed by the provisions of the Nigerian constitution.

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“We must go back to the provisions of the Constitution. It’s not unusual in a federation to have federal government police and state police but again, we have to go back to the drawing table and finetune our policies before we have state police. We must assure our people.

“There are governors in Nigeria that will turn state police into an instrument of oppression because even right now, the federal police is turned into an instrument of oppression.

“Right now, we deceive ourselves, we already have decentralisation of police; every community, every estate all have their own private security arrangement and majority of them are armed.”

16 Nigerian governors endorse state police

Legit.ng earlier reported that 16 state governors on Thursday, March 21, endorsed the establishment of state police.

The National Economic Council (NEC) disclosed this on Thursday in a report submitted to the Council at its 140th meeting held virtually and chaired by Vice President Kashim Shettima.

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The minister of Budget and Economic Planning Atiku Bagudu who briefed State House correspondents virtually after the meeting, said out of the 36 states, 20 state governors and the FCT were yet to make their submissions. However, Bagudu did not mention the states.

Source: Legit.ng