Zamfara state Governor, Dauda Lawal has declared that Zamfara State is fully ready for the establishment of state police, dismissing fears of political abuse by assuring the public that the institution will not serve any individual’s selfish interest.
This position follows the Senate’s recent passage of the bill seeking to amend the constitution to establish a dual federal and state policing structure.
In a statement issued by the Senior Special Assistant to the Secretary to the State Government, Suleiman Ahmad Tudu, the administration argued that Nigeria’s escalating security challenges including banditry, kidnapping, and insurgency have proved that the centralized policing architecture is overstrained and requires immediate reform.
He maintained that local policing will yield superior results because officers intimately understand the communities they serve.
Quoting Governor Lawal on the necessity of local intervention, he said, “Nobody will come and fix them for us. We will do it ourselves. Zamfara State is already bearing the cost of security, even without constitutional control over the police or other federal security agencies. Creating state police will therefore not be an additional financial burden on the state, but merely the formalization of an existing responsibility.”
Addressing concerns regarding the financial sustainability of a state force, the statement revealed that Zamfara is already heavily financing security operations within its borders.
He identified that the state has established a functional Security Trust Fund and invested massively in logistics, vehicle procurement, and the renovation of police stations and officers’ quarters.
Key equipment already procured includes over 200 operational vehicles, approximately 30 armored personnel carriers, 100 motorcycles, and surveillance drones.
He also disclosed that state has already laid the groundwork for local law enforcement by establishing the Zamfara State Community Protection Guards, known as the Askarawa, which features over 2,000 recruited local personnel alongside experienced hunters engaged from Maiduguri to strengthen frontline defenses.
Responding to public anxieties that state police forces could be weaponized by state executives,the Governor noted that his track record reveals that he has never deployed government institutions against political opponents.
The Governor expressed absolute confidence that the legal frameworks establishing the new system will include rigorous checks and balances.
He assured citizens that adequate mechanisms will be put in place to enforce institutional accountability, ensuring that the state police remains a transparent entity designed to protect the public rather than serve personal or political agendas.