No going back on State Police - Jonathan

Former President Goodluck Jonathan says the state police are the only solution to the security challenge facing the country.

The former Presidentsaid this at a Critical National Dialogue on the Establishment of State Police organised by the House of Representatives on Monday in Abuja, with the theme “Pathways to Peace: Reimagining Policing in Nigeria.”.

“We don’t need to debate whether we should have state police or not; I think it is already settled; there is no way to manage our internal security if the states do not have their police,” Jonathan said.

He said that the 2014 National Conference set up during his administration supported the creation of state police.

He added that the country could not afford to toy with the idea of state police any longer.

“We must not waste our time debating whether we should have state police or not; we should concentrate on how to check abuses by state political actors.

“The key area that we need to debate is how we will run the state police to secure the security architecture of the country so that it is most effective and devoid of any political influence,” Jonathan said.

He said the idea of establishing state police should have been concretized while he was in office as the President and Commander-in-Chief.

“If we are talking of state police, we must also rejig the Independent National Electoral Commission so that the state police will not be used to favour the ruling party,” he said.

He said that with state police, kidnapping and other criminalities would be reduced to the barest minimum.

“We have not been able to control the issue of kidnapping since it started, and we need to reduce it to the barest minimum,” he said.