As part of efforts to end insecurity in Nigeria, the Governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde, has insisted that state police must be established as soon as possible, noting that it has become imperative to surmount the security challenges facing different parts of the country.
Makinde, on Tuesday, noted that the refusal of the Federal Government to approve South-West Governors’ demand to establish state police few years ago led to the emergence of the Western Nigeria Security Network, Amotekun.
The Governor made this known when he received the Conference of Speakers of State Legislators, South-West Chapter, led by its chairman and Speaker of Ekiti State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Adeoye Aribasoye.
He said: “I want to observe that you need to all come together irrespective of the political party that brought you into office.
“This is a demonstration that the electioneering period is over and you need to have everybody pulling together to govern and deliver dividends of democracy to our people.”
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“A lot of people may not know that before we launched Amotekun in this state, some of us governors went to the Federal Government and we asked to be allowed to set up state police for our various states but we did not get that approval during the time of President Muhammadu Buhari.
“I disagreed at that particular time and still disagree to date that the states are not in the position to maintain state police. I have never seen where the Federal Government went to a particular state and gave the police everything they needed. So, the states are already maintaining the police.”
“So, the issue of being unable to maintain state police will not arise again. Give us the responsibility first and see if certain states will be able to maintain it or not.
“But since we could not get state police, we settled for Amotekun. All the state assemblies in the South West passed a common law for its establishment. So, we have to be pushing for state police, and you lawmakers have a role to play to make that a reality.”
