By Emmanuel Oloniruha
Presidential Candidate of the National Rescue Movement (NRM), Dr Esther Okereke, says adoption of group policing and state police are vital options to Nigeria’s safety challenges.
Okereke mentioned this when she appeared on the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) persona interview collection on Sunday in Abuja.
She suggested the Federal Government to rethink the nation safety framework, and put money into localised defence mechanisms to make sure the protection of lives and property throughout the nation.
Okereke mentioned that native safety personnel have been finest positioned to defend their communities on account of their deep understating of the native terrains.
She added that efficient intelligence gathering and swift response mechanisms might solely be achieved by empowering these on the grassroots degree.
“I have said it before: Community policing is key. Equip the community vigilance groups, the forest guards, the hunters, fund and train them.
“Nobody can defend the community better from those that know the terrains,’’ Okereke said.
The NRM presidential flagbearer likened local crime to insider sabotage, describing community policing as one of the best mechanisms not only to weed out local collaborators, but effectively tackle the menace.
“My mother used to say that it is the rat inside the house that tells the one outside that there is fish in the basket,” she mentioned.
Okereke expressing her assist for the institution of state police, dismissed the fears that state governors would abuse such initiative.
She mentioned that the usage of structural checks and balances, a strict chain of command, and clear jurisdictional boundaries would assist to forestall political overreach in a decentralised policing system.
“There are clauses, they’ve their jurisdictions. They have who they report back to. They have the chain of command. You can’t simply come and say, Oh, I give all of the veto energy to the state to do every little thing or take your resolution. No.
“When we are saying fund it, empower them doesn’t imply you need to give them the entire energy to make choices, to hold out judgment and sentences, no. It’s not carried out like that.
“Even within the federal, you may’t do it like that. I imply, that’s why you continue to have chain of command ranging from the president right down to the grassroots.
“It ought to nonetheless be like that. Still curb and curtail what they’ll do and what they can’t do. It’s so simple as that,’’ Okereke mentioned.(NAN)(NAN)
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Edited by Francis Onyeukwu
