Osinbajo Backs State Police

Pat Stevens/

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has expressed support for the decentralisation of the police.

The Vice President revealed his position at the opening ceremony of a two-day summit on national security holding in Abuja.

The summit was organised by the Senate to address the spate of killings by herdsmen and other acts of violence across the country.

Osinbajo affirmed that “state police is the way to go”, in his opening speech at the ceremony.

He argued that it was impossible to centrally police Nigeria from Abuja.

Osinbajo also said the federal government would not impose ideas on states on the resolution of Herdsmen/Farmers conflict.

His words: “For a country our size, to meet the one policeman to 400 persons according to the UN prescribed ratio, we would require almost triple the number of our current police force. Far more funding for the military and security agencies is required.

“We cannot police a country the size of Nigeria centrally from Abuja. State police and other community policing methods are clearly the way to go.

“The nature of our security challenges are complex. Securing Nigeria’s over 900sq/km and its 180 million people requires far more men and materials than we have at the moment. It also requires a continual re-engineering of our security architecture and strategies. This has to be a dynamic process.

“Let me reiterate that on no account will any land be seized or forcefully taken to create ranches or grazing areas. All insinuations to that effect should be disregarded. Instead, it is in our view that states that are willing should cooperate even with willing investors into commercially viable government supported ranches or livestock production centers for commercial use.”

The Vice President also used the occasion to list President Muhammadu Buhari’s many efforts to ensure peace and security in every part of the country.

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