Adewale Ajayi,
Members of the Civil Society Organizations (CSO) and legal practitioners have commended the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) over its decision that applicants to the police service should get letter of recommendation from their local government area.
They noted that state police can come into being, unless the framework for its existence is created, and that is an Act of the National Assembly that will create room for setting up of state police, hence, rule out that the mass recruitment carried out in the Nigeria Police Force is purposely to set up state police.
Speaking on the development, Akinrogun Tunde Odanye (A lawyer) said “I don’t think the recruits having to go to their states of origin has anything to do with state police. All states have a quota to be recruited, with the fraudulent faking of states of origin discovered in the last Army recruitment with people from some northern States claiming to be from Lagos State, therefore, the Police must have decided on what they consider a more effective way of determining/confirming States of Origin.
“After being recruited they’d be sent to one of the few Police Colleges in the Country and from there they can be posted to different States in the Country, irrespective of their States of Origin. The meaning of this is that the Police Postings still remain as it is with people posted to states other than their states of origin.”
Sounding pessimist about state police, Spokesperson Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), Comrade Mark Adebayo said, there is no guarantee that it will be much more effective than what we have now, “we should not deceive ourselves, the only thing we are going to have is increase in police personnel, we are not sure how effective they are going to be in terms of crime fighting, in terms of not being corrupt, in terms of not being misused by the State governors, that is the biggest fear of the Nigerian people” he said.
Comrade Mark stated that until the right atmosphere is created it will be difficult to have state police.
“There is the need to be an Act of the National Assembly that will say, government now has the capacity, authority and the constitutional power that state now have their own power to have their own police personnel and they will spell out their duties, their functions, and when the law is passed and assented to by the president, it is only after that, they can recruit” he said.
On his part, National Secretary, Campaign for Democracy (CD), Comrade Femi Lawson stated that, whatever steps that will be taken towards the establishment of State Police, as being demanded by a cross section of Nigerians, and must be rooted in our constitution, and not merely through the decentralization of the recruitment process, as being witnessed.
“What the police authority is currently doing, from my point of view, is an attempt, at taking the exercise closer, to the grassroots, as a way of encouraging applicants, especially from those state, which has traditionally witnessed, low recruitment rate, in the past.”