State Police: Giving governors power over security suicidal to democracy — APC Chieftain

By Austine Emmanuel, Kaduna

A chieftain of the ruling All Progressive Congress, (APC), Professor Kailani Muhammad has said that to avail state governors the powers to control an entire state police as a sole authority, could be suicidal to Nigerian democracy.

This is as the chieftain noted with concern that some state governors attempt to use police to coerce the electorates during elections to toe their political paths during voting even when the police structure is not under their supervision.

Addressing a Press conference in Kaduna at the weekend, Kailani stressed that the discussions in the Nigerian political space, about the formation of a state police or not, do not merit attention of the Nigerian state at this moment considering numerous indications that the Nigerian state is not yet prepared for state police.

He further averred that some state governors are presently finding it difficult to pay civil servants salaries, adding that their mindsets are yet to adjust to the true principles of democracy, which is ‘the government of the people, by the people and for the people,’ according to Abraham Lincoln.

“There is a constructive argument that state governors might use state police to intimidate, blackmail and victimize Nigerians either for political, ethnic, tribal or social gains for themselves, to the detriment of the state. We cannot afford to copy the United States of America, Great Britain, Germany or any other country on the issue of state police, because we are not ready for it now.

“Another worrisome development is the fake fuel scarcity caused by petroleum products marketers. They have devised a cunning strategy to defraud and inflict hardship on the citizenry, by hoarding petroleum products, and damned the consequences on the citizenry.

“The Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO), Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPC Ltd), has come out categorically and assured Nigerians that there is enough petroleum products to service Nigeria for a long time to come.

“Those behind this manufactured fuel scarcity should be fished out and sanctioned accordingly, to serve as a deterrent to others. This country belongs to all of us. We must collectively work hard to salvage it together and so, I am passionately appealing to our able President, Alhaji Bola Tinubu, to consider APC Support Groups for appointments to prepare them for mobilising their members as 2027 draws closer,” he said.