The Peoples Redemption Party (PRP) has strongly rejected the ongoing constitutional amendment process seeking to establish state police.
Recall that senate and house of representatives have passed the constitution alteration bill intended to transfer policing from the exclusive legislative list to the concurrent list.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the nation’s governors have backed the proposed legislation in response to the country’s worsening insecurity.
However, in a statement signed on Thursday by Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, the party expressed “deep concern” over President Tinubu’s proposal to establish state police, arguing that he introduced the initiative at a time when his administration’s “credibility and competence are at an unprecedented low level in our democratic history.”
The PRP stated that while Nigeria needs a comprehensive review of its security architecture to address rising insecurity crisis and restore public confidence in law enforcement institutions, the APC led administration “lacks the moral assets and the trust of Nigerians to undertake a major shift in the policing structure of the country”.
The statement also pointed criticizes the administration’s chronic mismanagement of national security structures and institutions, condemning the ongoing push for state policing as a highly suspicious agenda that the public must reject.
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To safeguard the nation’s democratic integrity, the opposition party insists that the forthcoming elections must serve as a foundational test—one that must first achieve genuine credibility and widespread public trust before the country can responsibly deliberate on massive structural changes like local police forces.
Additionally, the party urged the administration to make “greater efforts” to improve security nationwide and end what it described as the “nightmare” of insecurity plaguing Nigerians, rather than pursuing constitutional amendments to create state police.
Backstory…
The Senate officially passed constitutional amendments to establish state police in Nigeria. Legislators formally approved the bill on Wednesday, June 24.
Furthermore, before considering the bill, the senators opted to vote manually because the electronic voting device developed a technical fault.
The resolution came following concerns among senators over the possibility of some lawmakers losing their voting rights if the chamber used the faulty device.
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