FG’S failings over security may push citizens to self- defence, Akeredolu warns
Why govs can’t be trusted with state police, by Malami • Buhari insists govt has degraded B’haram, IPOB, others • Police boss laments irregular pay, power failure as Force graduates 205 officers
ONDO State Governor and Chairman of South West Governors’ Forum, Rotimi Akeredolu, yesterday, warned the Federal Government that its inability to secure life and property would soon leave citizens with no choice but to arm themselves in self- defence.
Akeredolu, who gave the warning while delivering the keynote address at a meeting of Attorneys- General of the 36 States of Nigeria, held in Lagos, said the police are overwhelmed.
He asked the security agency to “close shop” if Federal Government is unable meet its equipment needs.
Akeredolu added: “The current spate of insecurity in the country leaves us with no room for equivocation on the right of states to maintain law and order through the establishment of state police.
“The growing distrust in the polity is a direct result of the disconnect between the Federal Government and the constituent units of the country. The economic adversity currently experienced in the country points directly at the defective political structure.
“A unitary system cannot work successfully in a country like Nigeria. The 1999 Constitution has been amended twice. There is another promise of further amendments arising from the manifest irregularity in many provisions.” B
UT in his address at the event, Attorney- General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami ( SAN), said governors cannot continue to agitate for restructuring and state police when they are responsible for compromise and mismanagement of the current system.
He said state governors who have taken over allocations of local governments in their states have no moral right to ask for restructuring.
Malami noted: “State police will not work because state governors would abuse it. Look at the way they treat local governments. Imagine what will happen if they control the police.” P
RESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari, however, maintained that the Federal Government is winning the war against insurgency and criminality in the country.
He said: “The Boko Haram insurgency, the Indigenous People of Biafra, Eastern Security Network, and banditry in some parts of the country, over time, which posed a potent threat to the country, had been significantly degraded and relative normalcy had returned to most towns and villages.”