Ekweremadu Calls For Decentralised Police

Former Deputy President of the Senate and Senator Representing Enugu West Senatorial District, Senator Ike Ekweremadu has reiterated his call for the decentralisation of policing in the country.
Ekweremadu made the call at a security summit organised by the Agbaja Youths General Assembly in Udi, Enugu State, over the weekend.
According to him, as much as community policing is a good option, it can only work in Nigeria, when the police is decentralised, “because both community policing and decentralised policing function better working together.”
The Senator pointed out that “returning to decentralised policing will go a long way in minimising the security challenges that we are presently facing in the country,” recalling that our security challenges escalated when decentralised policing was abolished.
In his words: “ The police should be in charge of internal policing in the country while soldiers are for external services. The practice in most countries operating a federal system of government is decentralised policing.
“Ideally, we should have a federal, state and local government police for effective policing. For checks and balances, in cases of abuse by some actors, a federal police service commission is recommended to regulate the activities of the different tiers of policing.
“Until we decentralise our policing, we will not get it right security wise. Decentralised policing is also part of restructuring which many Nigerians have been clamoring for”.
Ekweremadu congratulated the Youths for choosing an appropriate theme for the summit, which is “ Nurturing Security Conscious and Law Abiding Youths” and urged youths in the country to be law abiding, “bearing in mind that they are very important stakeholders in security issues; a strong focal point in the architecture of any country.”