The ongoing protest by youths across the country for the disbandment of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) has underscored the need to establish state police, says Uche Chukwuma, Director General, Rivers State Nieghbourhood Watch.
Mr Chukwuma while speaking on a phone- in programme organised by Silverbird Communications at the weekend in Port Harcourt said the current Federal police has outlived its importance.
“The Federal police we have now sees the people as lower class of animals. So we need a police that will be close to the people in terms of culture, environment and religion,” he observed.
The former Assistant Commissioner of Police explained that the policing in Nigeria is far from reality because the culture and environment in the North are different from those in the South, as such, this makes it difficult to secure the lives of Nigerians.
Besides, he stated that the police in the Northern and Southern parts operate with different law codes, which also makes it difficult to achieve success.
In this light, he submitted that the best option was to adopt community or state policing which would reflect the needs of the people.
To achieve this, Chukwuma said the National Assembly and the governors have huge role to play, stressing that the National Assembly has to review the laws to permit community policing come on stream.
He picked holes in the conversion of SARS to SWAT by the Inspector General of Police as it will be difficult to adopt an American police system without following its principles.
“If we want to emulate the American system then they should also adopt the superstructure. The American system believes in state policing,” he stated.
For the system to work, he recommended that policing should be removed from the Exclusive List and taken to the Concurrent List in the Constitution.