The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has attributed the incessant kidnappings in the country including the recent abduction of 286 students and teachers from two schools in Kaduna to the failure of the federal policing system in Nigeria.
The Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission, Anthony Ojukwu, disclosed this at a stakeholders’ dialogue on state police organised by the Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre in Abuja.
Recall that bandits invaded the Kuriga area of the Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State on March 7, shooting indiscriminately at people before whisking away the victims.
The incident has since triggered a national outrage, with Jama’atu Nasril Islam, Amnesty International, the Parents-Teachers Association of Nigeria, Nigeria Union of Teachers, and the House of Representatives condemning the attack.
But Ojukwu emphasised that such disaster could have been averted if the nation had not prioritised protection of the elite and affluent in society at the expense of the masses.
He also drummed support for the introduction of state police to tackle banditry and general insecurity ravaging the country.
He said, “Insecurity in this country is a result of bad governance; there is no argument about that. However, do we have to wait until there is good governance? Even in societies where you have good governance, they don’t joke with the issue of security.
“We are at a crossroads where every aspect of our life as Nigerians is not working. For me, the greatest attraction was the issue of state police tackling insecurities.
“We have so many complaints about the federal police. Look at the origin; it started from being something the colonial master introduced to force us to pay taxes. So ab initio, it was formed to protect the authorities.
“When we now got our independence, there was no concerted effort to re-orientate the Nigerian police. That was the issue. These guys are just protecting the elite, particularly the executive and legislature. Governors have a convoy of 1,000 policemen leaving the rest of us unprotected.”
Speaking on the abduction of the pupils, Ojukwu said, “That is why you can go on a road that stretches about 10 kilometres and you won’t see one single policeman. That is also why you can come into a secondary school and take away 282 students.
“Do you even know what 282 students look like? If you want to bring in luxury buses, you will need about three or four of them to pack them. And if you decide to use motorcycles, you need about 200 to lift these children.
“How did these people go about it without being noticed? Well, I am not a data analyst. But from what I heard, the number of policemen guarding all these rich individuals is far more than the ones left to look after the rest of us.”
A professor of Criminology and Sociology of Law at the University of Jos, Etannibi Alemika, however, disagreed with the call for state police.
Alemika wondered why Nigerians should be talking about deploying police at the state level when it was obvious their functions would be hijacked by the governors and influential figures within the domains.