AfriPulse
…Mulls independent State Police Service Commission
IGNATIUS OKOROCHA, Abuja
Pro-democracy and civil rights advocacy group HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) said the time is overdue for the establishment of state police in Nigeria to confront the unprecedented insecurity in Nigeria.
The group however, says the overall command and control shouldn’t be domiciled with state governors but with members of the independent state police service Commission, which ought to be created to improve accountability of the state policing institution.
HURIWA said the prospective members of the Independent state police service Commission should run for election as independents and not as card-carrying members of any of the registered parties just as the Independent National Electoral Commission should oversee such elections alongside the others during general elections.
HURIWA said the autonomous state police service commission should be a body of reputable persons(not more than 7 in each state) constituted from the people of the state with a single four-year tenure.
To constitute the oversight policing body in the states, members should be elected during the general elections just as they can’t be removed unless any of such person is found guilty of a serious crime of fraud or found to be bankrupt by a competent court of law.
HURIWA stated that the apprehension about state governors misusing state police operatives to attack their perceived political opponents as observed by the member representing Pankshin/Kanke/Kanam Federal Constituency of Plateau State and Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Navy, Yusuf Gagdi, is germane and disconcerting but the Rights group said if the constitutional amendment to create state police is made with enforceable provisions on the composition of the independent state police service Commission, then it may be difficult for governors to ride roughshod on the state policing institution in their domains.
The ranking House of Representatives member, Mr. Gagdi who earlier stated this while visiting some attacked and displaced communities in Kanam Local Government Area of Plateau State on Sunday, said he has never been in support of the calls by Governor Mutfwang and other governors for the establishment of state police, alleging that they will be used against perceived political opponents.
He emphasized his views while featuring on ‘Politics Today’, a programme on Channels Television on Tuesday. Gagdi warned that governors cannot be trusted with the control of policing in their states.
In a media statement endorsed by the National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, HURIWA warned that discarding the idea of state police for fear that the governors will misuse the state police against political rivals is like throwing the bathwater away together with the baby.
“We accept that the governors of Nigeria are often dictatorial and may use the state police against political opponents just like what obtains with the centralised national police whereby successive Presidents have often deployed the police to target their political opponents, but HURIWA said if the Police Service Commission at the centre was made to function independently and without letting the president have the appointing authority, the excesses and professional misconduct of the police would have been drastically controlled.
The Rights group therefore asked the National Assembly’s constitution amendment committee to include provisions creating independent state police service commission whose members would enjoy unimpeded independence and wouldn’t be subjected to the whims and caprices of the governors.
“We think that by this way, the groundswell of fears being expressed by opponents of the idea of a state police in Nigeria would have been taken care of.
The state governors should be convinced not to oppose the checks and balances to b
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