State Police Now Best Option – Olusegun Obasanjo

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has canvassed state police to combat the country’s growing insecurity.

The creation of state police, according to Obasanjo, would be a better alternative than community policing.

To combat the wave of insecurity sweeping the country, the former President believes state police should be prioritized over community policing.

In a statement, Obasanjo’s Special Assistant on Media, Kehinde Akinyemi, cited the former president as saying this during a courtesy visit to him in Abeokuta on Wednesday by the leadership of the National Association of Ex-Local Government Chairmen in Nigeria.

Obasanjo spoke on the need to strengthen the traditional system and the local government administration.

He said, “Our situation in Nigeria concerns everyone, particularly, the case of terrorism. The case has gotten over the issue of community police. It is now state police. It is from that state police that we can now be talking about community police.

“I prepared during the popular Murtala/Obasanjo administration, because I believe that there is need to enable that tier of government to work truly as a local government. They have their own Executive, Judiciary and Legislature.

“They were working and they were very visible, building and managing roads, looking into education, health, local administration, agriculture, but they are all gone.”