Adewale Adebayo, presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party has made a case for decentralised policing, arguing that Nigeria’s federal structure should allow the Federal Government, states and local governments to establish their own police forces.
He spoke at the 66th Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) held in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on Monday.
Adebayo said the issue should be viewed as a constitutional and federalism question rather than a political slogan.
“It is a principle of law that the sovereignty of Nigeria is divided between federal, state and local. The legislative power includes the power, or should include the power, to police,” he said.
He argued that any level of government with the power to make laws should also have the capacity to establish a police force to enforce those laws.
“If I can make laws, I should be able to create police to enforce my law. No level of government should depend on another level to enforce its own law,” Adebayo said.
When asked directly whether he supported state police, he said he favoured policing at all levels.
“I support police at every level of government. Federal, its own police. State, its own police. Local government, its own police. Because that is how it should be in federalism,” he said.
Adebayo described decentralised policing as an inherent right of the different levels of government, rather than a concession from the Federal Government.
He also blamed the centralised policing structure on military rule, alleging that military decrees abolished earlier policing arrangements and produced a constitution that was not sufficiently federalist.
Asked about the current proposal for state police, Adebayo described it as “a trick” by President Bola Tinubu.
(Ripples)
