Ekweremadu restates call for ‘decentralized policing’ in Nigeria

Former Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, has re-stated his previous call for decentralized policing in the country, as according to him, it would go a long way in tackling the insecurity across the country.

Senator Ekweremadu made the call during a security summit with the theme; “Nurturing Security Conscious and Law Abiding Youths,” organized by the Agbaja Youths General Assembly in Udi, Enugu State, at the weekend.

He said going back to decentralized policing would help in minimizing the security challenges “we are presently facing in the country,” stressing that “our security challenges escalated when decentralized policing was abolished.”

According to him, “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 decentralized 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 decentralize our policing, we will not get it right security-wise. Decentralized policing is also part of restructuring which many Nigerians have been clamouring for.”

Ekweremadu, who represents Enugu-West Senatorial District, congratulated the youths for choosing an appropriate theme for the summit, advising them to be law abiding as they “are very important stakeholders in security issues” in the country.

He cautioned them against cultism, reminding them to always think of making money through hard work and legitimate means while also encouraging the students among them to concentrate on their studies as “they will be remembered by the good grades they made in school and not the cult group they belonged to, which in any case will be of no benefit to them.”