The Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) and national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, have knocked President Muhammadu Buhari for his open rejection of State Police in the country.
PANDEF described the President as self-centered and egoistic.
Buhari had expressed fear that state governors would abuse the process if allowed to sail through.
However, in a statement issued by its National Publicity Secretary,
Ken Robinson, the group encouraged Nigerians to continue the clamour for state police.
The statement read: “The President is saying he does not believe in State Police. Well, that has been the position of the presidency.
“They do not support State Police and the reason is obvious because they are simply benefiting from the absolute command and control system that is in place where you appoint an Inspector-General of Police and he dances to your tune.
“It is what you want, what pleases the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that you do.
“In fact, if a Commissioner of Police does not dance to the tune of the President or presidency he is sacked.
“You appoint a commissioner of police or post commissioner of police to a state that would do the biddings of the IGP and the President.
“And of course, the IGP through the CP do accordingly and completely disregard orders or instructions from the governors who are supposedly democratically elected and are the chief security officers of their states.
“This is unacceptable and we cannot continue like this. We can cite several instances such as the Lagos governor, as it were, who was completely disregarded.
“This is not acceptable. A situation like that could create chaos and lead to a very unpleasant situation in the state.
“So, for PANDEF, we believe in the creation of state police. It is one of the critical aspects of restructuring and we believe that the Nigerian State should be restructured.
“We have operated this system for too long and it is not working. It is creating problems for us and is not doing us any good.
“So, the President is saying that he does not support state police, is completely out of place, self-centered and egoistic and it is because the presidency is enjoying this faulty system.
“So we completely condemned what is going on in Nigeria.
“We hope that the National Assembly and all true patriots will add their voice to insist that we can no longer continue this way.
“The security architecture of Nigeria is archaic, obsolete and analogue and we need to rejig the system.
“If we say let us change the service chiefs every two months it will not change the system. It is not about the person, it is about the structure and system that is no longer needed in today’s world
“So, we need to open up the system, we need to have community and local government police.
“The community police that the IG projected is completely out of place because the concept was wrong and that is why it is not working.
“PANDEF position remains: we stand for the demand for state police.
“The fear of some is that the governors will abuse it and we readily asked whether the Federal Government is not abusing the present system.”
Also in his reaction, the PDP Chairman accused Buhari of being comfortable with the killings and his statement that “state police is not an option”, suggests that the situation may not be about to change.
A statement from Dr. Ayu’s Media Office quoted the PDP national chairman as declaring that “it appears the continued killings in some localities of Nigeria, particularly in the North, and more specifically in President Buhari’s home state of Katsina, may not matter to him” with his statement that state police is not an option.
“Well, what the president failed to reference is that the herders plying the grazing routes before, neither carried AK47s, nor did they engage in raping of women and despoliation of the assets of those along the routes.
“Mr. President’s position of saying the locals should be asked what went wrong, flies in the face of reason and contemporary realities.
“Tied to that but not limited in scope is the issue of insecurity and a reorganisation of the Nigeria Police to accommodate present, peculiar, environmental and social challenges.
“In President Buhari’s view, state police is not an option. Yet, it appears the continued killings in some localities of Nigeria, particularly in the North, and more specifically in his home state of Katsina, may not matter, hence, the need to have a security system that feeds on local intelligence and nuances, which the federal police cannot adequately provide, is not an option to our president.
“To him, it appears that continuing the same process while expecting a different output and outcome is the best way to go.”
