Ekweremadu: Nigeria can create state police within 10 days

The Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party Committee on Electoral Reforms and Constitutional Amendment, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, on Thursday, said, with the right political will in place, Nigeria can have state police within ten days.

He said this in an address during the inauguration of the committee at the PDP National Headquarters, in Abuja.

Ekweremadu, who served as Deputy Senate President and Chairman of the Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution in the 7th and 8th National Assembly, noted that there was a general consensus that the current centralized system of policing has failed woefully.

He said, “The weaknesses in our structure and the Constitution we operate, have never been as pronounced as they are today. Some of us forewarned that feeding bottle federalism would only continue to increase our appetite for wealth sharing and guzzling, kill our propensity to create wealth, make us poorer. It is regrettable to say that the chicken has come home to roost.

“In the absence of state police, security of lives and property has practically collapsed. So long as we run a dysfunctional centralised policing, for that long will our insecurity-induced pains and losses continue to rise. The community policing initiative is illusory, cosmetic, ephemeral, inorganic, and will certainly not change anything.

“With the right political will, the amendments to the Constitution to achieve a decentralised police and secure lives and property can be achieved 10 days.”