A former Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, has stated that insecurity will worsen in the country if state police is being created.
He stated this in an interview to dismiss calls by some Nigerians for state policing, in the wake of the various security challenges, especially the activities of bandits in the North.
In his words: “When you say state police, you are creating another problem to tackle an existing problem. We should address the issue of the inadequacy of the police compared to the country’s population.”
When asked, he confirmed that the police is overstretched.
“The strength of the police, compared to the Nigerian population, obviously, we are over-stretched.
“When I left compared to now, the police is operating at very low-level population.”
He therefore advocated for more recruitment into the Nigeria Police Force to be able to meet up with its operational demands.
“The issue is that police are over-stretched, they are operating at a very low level, compared to the population of this country. Within a period of time, if we can increase the population of the police to tackle the challenges we have in the country, that will assist a lot.”
