Gov. Makinde calls for State Police creation immediately

Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde has demanded that state police be established immediately in order to combat security issues that exist throughout the nation.

On Tuesday, January 30, Makinde made this statement during a meeting with the Conference of Speakers of State Legislators, South-West Chapter, which was presided over by its chairman, Rt. Hon. Adeoye Aribasoye, the speaker of the Ekiti State House of Assembly.

The governor claimed that a few years ago, the Federal Government refused to recognize the South-West Governors’ proposal to establish a state police force, which led to the creation of the Western Nigeria Security Network Agency, popularly known as Amotekun.

“I want to observe that you all need to come together irrespective of the political party that brought you into office,” stated the governor. This shows that the electioneering phase is ended and that cooperation is required from all parties in order to govern and provide our citizens with the benefits of democracy.

According to Makinde, the idea of establishing state police is one whose time has come, and there are concerns in some quarters that states won’t be able to continue operating state police.

“Many people might not be aware that, prior to the implementation of Amotekun in this state, a number of us governors approached the federal government to request authorization to establish state police for our individual states. However, we were not granted this authorization during President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration,” Makinde stated.

“I disagreed at the time—and I continue to disagree—that the states are not equipped to sustain state police. I have never witnessed a situation where the federal government went to a state and provided the police with all they required. Thus, the police are already maintained by the states.

Makinde stated that while the police are on the exclusive list, states should have access to funding from the federation account to fulfill their maintenance obligations if that duty is divided and they are required to manage their own police systems.

Thus, the problem of not being able to keep state police will not come up again. Assign us the duty first, and then determine whether or not specific states can continue with it.

We opted for Amotekun instead of state police, though. A common law was passed by every state assembly in the South West to establish it. Therefore, in order to make state police a reality, we must advocate for them and you politicians have a part to play.