CPC Boss Makes Case For State Police

The National Chairman of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), Prince Tony Momoh, has said that the party’s manifesto has provision for the establishment of a state police.

Momoh  who made the statement in an interview with newsmen in Abuja said,  “ our party has provided in its manifesto for the restructuring of the country and one of the areas is diversifying the police force so that we would have state police and even community policing,’’ he said.

According to him, the party believes that the central force alone cannot secure Nigeria.

The CPC National Chairman noted that the police had been the formal body in charge of policing.

He said, “individuals too have to be involved because the law itself provides for citizens to be part and parcel of securing the environment against armed robbery, kidnapping among others.

“In a situation where a state governor who is the state’s chief security officer cannot have command over the police in an emergency, he can be likened to a toothless bulldog,’’ he said.

This, he said, was so because in the constitution, the Commissioner of Police could only take order from the Inspector General of Police who is under the Presidency.

Momoh maintained that unless the Nigerian Police  was decentralised, there would not be free flow of law enforcement processes.

He said: “ after the post-election violence, one person decided to put the entire North under siege as a Commander in Chief.

“But I believe in a situation where a state governor can have the right to declare a curfew in his/her state if there is security challenges. I believe that would be a welcome development. ’’

An official of the CPC, who did not want his name published, said that the security challenges in the country were not about constitutional amendment.

According to him, the insecurity was about injustice and the only way forward was for “our leaders to be forthright’’.

“Let us have a free and fair society because there can never be security where there is no justice,’’ he stressed.