State police agitators seem to be winning their age-long battle.
Governors, faced with mounting security challenges – banditry, kidnapping and terrorism, among others – have agreed to push for a law to facilitate a state police system.
But, not all governors at a meeting in Abuja on Wednesday agreed to join the state police train. Kaduna State Governor Nasir El-Rufai declined. He feels Nigeria is not yet ripe for the idea.
To accommodate all, the governors resolved that once the law is in place, every state will be free to fix the timeline it will put its State Police Force in place based on availability of resources.
The Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) will soon present a memo to the National Assembly Constitution Review Committee, which will be headed by Deputy Senate President Ovie Omo-Agege.
Governors have decided to secure President Muhammadu Buhari’s support for their plan. He had inaugurated a committee to review similar recommendations on State Police.
It was learnt that the governors arrived at their position on State Police at a session in Abuja on Wednesday.
Their position was later taken to the National Economic Council (NEC) yesterday in Abuja.
A source at the session said: “At our pre-NEC meeting, we weighed all options on the security challenges in the country and we reached an agreement that State Police System is likely to be one of the solutions to the problems at hand.
