Ajimobi ridicules governors' appellation as chief security officers saying they need state police

GOVERNOR Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State has joined in ridiculing the appellation of chief security officer given to Nigeria's governors saying that the title is meaningless unless they are allowed to run state police forces.

Currently wracked a spate of insecurity, Nigeria is suffering from a high level of armed robbery, kidnapping, communal violence and banditry at the moment. Across northern Nigeria in particular, armed Fulani herdsmen regularly carry out bloody attacks on farming villages, while many highways are no-go areas because bandits kidnap passengers for heavy ransoms.

In Zamfara State, armed bandits have taken over the countryside, prompting Governor Abdulaziz Yari to drop the title chief security officer. Nigeria's governors are powerless to address these problems because they do not control the Nigeria Police Force or the military and are dependent on the federal government coming to their assistance.

Of late, there have been calls for the establishment of state police forces but the development has its own problems because there is the risk that governors will use them as private armies to do their political work. However, Governor Ajimobi has insisted that only state police would save Nigeria and stem the tide of insecurity threatening the peace of the country.

Speaking while hosting the assistant inspector-general of police in charge of Zone 11, Leye Oyebade, in his office, in Ibadan, Governor Ajimobi said that state police would have the added benefit of good community relations. He added that an increase in the funding of the police force and adequate provision of logistics would also boost the morale of the personnel.

Governor Ajimobi said: “I am one of the pioneer advocates of state police. There is nowhere in the world where crime is effectively combated without state police.

"We refer to state governors as chief security officers but we have no control over the commissioner of police. Some will argue that the governor will take undue advantage of a state police under his watch but, do they consider the challenges of having only one person controlling the police in the 36 states and the federal capital?

“Until we do some structural adjustment to the policing system in Nigeria, we may not have the desired results. Having said that, generally Nigeria and Oyo State in particular, still have security challenges."

He added that in order to ensure effective and more efficient policing, modern technology is needed, stressing that in developed countries, when a crime is committed, even before it happens the police would have been hinted. In addition, the governor urged the rank and file of the police to change the perception of the masses, who did not see the police as their friends.