The Reformed- All Progressives Congress has expressed its support for moves by the National Assembly to make legislation in support of the creation of state police.
The National Publicity Secretary of the R-APC, Kassim Afegbua said this in an interview with Saturday PUNCH, in Abuja, on Friday.
He said the growing level of insecurity in the country required fresh thinking noting that in advanced democracies such as the United Kingdom and the United States of America, their system of policing was efficient because it was designed to be closer to the grassroots.
The R-APC spokesman noted that a large percentage of Nigeria’s security problems would have been better managed if we had a system of policing that took into consideration the peculiarities of the component units that make up Nigeria.
He said it was obvious that the system of policing currently in place was not working.
According to him, the wanton killing of innocent Nigerians across the country has gone on for too long and needs to be checked.
Afegbua said,
“We support the establishment of state police to the extent that it takes into cognizance the peculiarities of our multi-ethnic and multi-religious peculiarities.
“Take for example, in the UK, the policing there is such that communities take ownership and crimes are properly managed because the communities are directly involved.
“In the United States, you have the Federal Bureau of Investigations which acts like the federal police but you have policing at the various levels. In counties and the states you have the Sheriffs. There are crimes that are within their jurisdiction to handle there are points where the FBI comes to either assist or take over.
“But in Nigeria, the State Commissioner of Police has to wait for directives from one man sitting in Abuja before acting.
“You transfer a policeman from Maiduguri to my village in Edo State, he does not understand the language of the people, nor does he understand the terrain and you expect him to perform miracles, it will be impossible.”
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