Gen. Ijioma Nwokoro Ijioma (retd.) has spoken out against the establishment of state police as being proposed by President Bola Tinubu. He recently revealed that the establishment of state police would lead to governors converting their personnel into thugs to hunt down their perceived enemies.
Speaking during an interview in Umuahia, Ijioma said that state police is not the solution to the lingering insecurity in the country.
According to him, we’ll find out that nothing is actually wrong with the federal police if our police officers are able to revive the spirit with which they operated in the past.
He stated that state policing cannot work in Nigeria because governors will turn them into their personal thugs.
“Who is going to be the person that will issue orders to those state police? Is it the governors that you have today?
I am not in support of state policing. It will not work in Nigeria. That state police will become the thugs for the state governors. Take my word for it.
Nothing is wrong with the federal police. If the police are constituted and allowed to function the way police have been functioning before, there is nothing absolutely wrong with the police system we have had before,” he said.
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Gen. Ijioma Nwokoro further noted that establishing state policing would be a terrible move by President Tinubu if he is indeed serious about the idea.
He concluded by urging BAT to focus on making the federal police functional like it is in several other nations across the globe.
“When you make the police dysfunctional, then you start looking for state police. And when you now introduce state police, it becomes a frank incest.
Then the governors will pocket them and use them to do their own bidding. And we start another thing altogether. Then, we start the cry all over again. I will advise Mr. President not to toe that line,” he added.
