My Reasons for Supporting the State Police Bill – Ndume

Borno South Senator Ali Ndume explained why he backed the creation of state police forces in Nigeria.

In an interview on Wednesday’s “Prime Time” programme on Arise Television, Ndume said Nigeria requires at least one million police officers to serve its population of more than 200 million.

His comments followed the Senate’s approval of the bill establishing state police to tackle the country’s insecurity.

According to him, “What prompted me to support state police 100 % is the reality that the number of police officers we currently have is far from adequate.”

“Nigeria’s total police strength is nothing to write home about. According to the UN benchmark, there should be between 200 and 400 police officers for every 100,000 people. Nigeria is nowhere near that standard.”

“A vast country like Nigeria, if you have centralized the policing under one IGP controlled by the center, not decentralizing it, that will never be effective, and that is where we found ourselves.”

“So, I don’t see anything wrong with having a decentralized police system, that is to say, the state police under the state governor, who is the chief security officer of the state.”