…As Governors yet to take position on State Police
(AFRICAN EXAMINER) – President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday met with governors of the 36 states and Security Chiefs behind closed door at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Briefing State House Correspondents after the meeting, Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) and Governor of Ekiti state, Kayode Fayemi said the meeting was to address the security situation 8n the country.
He explained that the governors of the 36 states are yet to take a position on the issue of state police.
“The meeting was at our instance as governors of the 36 states collectively. It has to do with the security situation in the country, our concerns about what’s going on all across the nation.
“We had a very fruitful meeting with Mr. President. Of course he was not oblivious of the challenges, he gets security reports in a daily basis, he understands what the issues are.
“But we felt as chief security officers in our respective states, it is also important for us to at least keep Mr. President abreast of the enormity or the challenges we are facing and also highlight the concerns of our citizens across the board about rural banditry, farmers/herders clashes, Kidnapping, militancy in the Delta, insurgency, cultism”, he said.
“We also looked at the criminal justice system that appears to give some room for impunity, when people commit crimes and they are not punished effectively in accordance with the statutes, it then creates an opportunity for replicating such crimes.
“And of course Mr. President was also equally concerned about that. He made it clear to us that we all knew that he campaign on the basis of security, economy and accountability
According to him, “these things are still the most germane issues on his agenda. And that he will also work with us to address questions of intelligence, of broadening community policing, of ensuring inter-service coordination among the various security agencies, of strengthening the criminal justice system, of working with our state’s innovatively on mechanism for addressing these issues. Be it security trust fund that brings the public and the private players together in other to fund security and increase the resources available to security institutions.
On whether state governors should be involved in state policing, Fayemi said that the NGF was yet to take decision on the issue
“We have not taken position because experiences vary. There are governors and states where their experience does not necessarily learn itself to more evolved policing to the states. There are also states where there are agitations for it, there are governors who have the views that that will work better in such states.
“And of course there are the economic issues relating to that. So we have the capacity at the state level to fund state policing, those are all issues that will come in play when we get to the national economic council meeting that has been called. Particularly because there is a committee that is looking into it after the submission of the report on SARS. So, we will take all of these together” Fayemi said.
