Deji Elumoye in Abuja

A former member of the National Assembly, Senator Ayodele Arise, has lauded President Bola Tinubu for fulfilling his promise on State Police.
He also gave kudos to both chambers of the National Assembly for quick passage of the Bill.
The Senate had on Wednesday followed the dmfootsteps of the House of Representatives in passing the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (Alteration) (State Police) Bill, 2026.
According to the bill, States would be empowered to establish and fund their own police services, recruit personnel and address local security challenges, subject to national minimum standards prescribed by the National Assembly.
It equally seeks to replace the existing Nigeria Police Force with a Federal Police Service and create a dual policing structure under which both federal and state police institutions would operate, simultaneously.
Reacting to the development in a chat with newsmen in Abuja, Arise who represented Ekiti North in the National Assembly between 2007– 2011, said State Police would go a long way in mitigating the scary security challenges facing the country.
Acvording to him:” Having state police is a much needed solution to reduce the security threat that we are facing in the country.
“There is no way security challenges will be eliminated completely but kudos to Mr. President that he has been very proactive on this subject as we continue to face the challenges of insecurity in the country.
“The President has been in the forefront of ensuring that solutions are provided to meet these challenges and almost completely eliminate existence of these bad elements in the country as it comes to kidnapping that has been going on in communities and the ability of the Federal Police to respond very quickly and then moving from one location to the other that they aren’t particularly familiar with the terrain.
“So, a local police which normally constitute people in the local area serving as policemen or as security agents on behalf of the government, they already know the community, they know the people that reside in the community, they know the nooks and crannies of those communities.
“So, it is a very welcome development, it is something that I believe that will solve to a large extent, the security challenges that we have faced for several years in the past.”
Commenting on fears of abuse by state governors, who will assume the power of appointing authority unlike the present Federal Police where the Inspector General of Police deploys the Commissioner of Police, S Arise expressed hope that the 10th National Assembly would put in place Constitutional safeguards to curtail abuse by state governors.
His words:” Yes, many of the objections are legitimate concerns but most of the Federal states that we know around the world, the successful ones like the United States and Canada, they have this multi layered policing system that has worked for them over the years.
“Some have had democracy for over 250 years and the multiple layers of policing states, communities, county, campus, up to the federal exists alongside. So, the challenges are there moreso in our country because we are just trying to experiment with this and as much as you and I know, the federal government by and large, you can see that the policing has been under the federal government for long time . They also equally have the opportunity of using that singular one for the good of the people, or against them.
“So the same way that the fears of the governors might begin to abuse the system exists . So, it is our responsibility to ensure that we put few checks and balances here and there that will curtail the excessiveness of any leader or governor of a state to use the Police against the people of the state. Of course, it might not be that too apparent but someone like me will suggest that in the system of appointment, of the Police Chief or State Commissioner of Police, there is a dual role, it isn’t left in the hands of the governor. There must be an input from the legislature, we know most of the governors control the legislative houses as it stands today but this won’t be a permanent state of mind of our people.
“As we continue to grow in our democratic practise and as we become more enlightened, people continue to come up and challenge where excesses exists but as a minimum the governor can either be the one appointing directly in which case there will be other ways of checking him.”
“We can have a state police commission that recommends two or three names to the Governor and the governor selects his option and that option is then passed to the state legislature to ratify. Beyond that, there must be a way to ensure that to remove a State Commissioner of Police, he must go back to the state assembly and cite breaches by the Commissioner of Police. “