State police funding must be first-line charge, Bamidele says

….Warns Business Class, Cabals, Criminals Could Hijack State Police Services

By Henry Umoru

ABUJA — Senate Leader, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele (APC, Ekiti Central), has said funding for state police services must be made a first-line charge in the ongoing amendment of the 1999 Constitution.

Bamidele said the move would help insulate the proposed state police system from possible abuse by political actors and other interests.

The Senate Leader, who is also Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution, warned that business groups, cabals, criminals and other organisations could also abuse state police services if their financial independence was not guaranteed.

In a statement by his Directorate of Media and Public Affairs on Wednesday, Bamidele acknowledged concerns raised by stakeholders over the proposed state police bill, saying that many of the issues were valid and could not be ignored.

He said the concerns were informed by experiences from the First Republic, when the 1960 and 1963 Constitutions empowered regional authorities to establish police forces for their provinces or parts of their provinces.

Considering the concerns, Bamidele said the National Assembly was developing a multi-layered safeguard framework that would promote discipline among personnel, institutional independence and fiscal autonomy for state police services.

He said the legislature was determined to ensure that funding for state police services became a first-line charge entrenched in law, similar to the financial arrangement for the judiciary.

He explained that funding for the judiciary was provided for in the 1999 Constitution, noting that the Chief Justice of Nigeria does not need to seek presidential approval for every procurement, unlike ministers or members of the Federal Executive Council.

“That is why we call it a first-line charge. In other words, the Commissioner of Police and State Police Service Commission must have a guaranteed source of funds provided for in the 1999 Constitution in a way that the police chief will not be subject to the whims and caprices of a state governor,” he said.

Bamidele stressed the need to guarantee the financial independence of state police services so that funding would not depend entirely on the discretion of governors.

“If a state police service is not responding well to the directives of a governor, he may choose not to fund it. We must prevent such a situation.

“We are, therefore, under the obligation to make provision for a certain percentage of a state budget specifically for the operations of state police services. Access to funds must be clearly spelt out,” he said.

The Senate Leader assured Nigerians that the National Assembly would establish a state police structure that would be accountable to the people, adding that concerns raised by stakeholders would be addressed in the proposed legislation.

He emphasised that adequate funding was critical to the effectiveness of state police services, noting that a poorly funded security structure would struggle to perform its constitutional responsibilities.

Bamidele explained that the ongoing constitutional amendment seeks to move policing powers from the Exclusive Legislative List, where they are currently domiciled with the Federal Government, to the Concurrent Legislative List, allowing states to establish their own police services.

He noted that concerns about state police had focused mainly on possible political abuse but argued that the risk extended beyond politics.

“Those who expressed concerns only talked of political abuse. But it is more than political abuse. If a state police service is not well funded, it is not only political actors that can abuse state police services.

“Business class can also abuse it. Some other organisations, even criminals or cabals, can abuse state police service because it is a question of ‘he who pays the piper dictates the tune.’

“If a state police service is not well funded by any means, we have a situation where it may as well be a highway to nowhere. That is one thing all of us must prevent,” he said.