NHRC: State Police Must Not Become Tool for Political Repression

Michael Olugbode in Abuja

Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Chief Anthony Ojukwu, has thrown his weight behind the establishment of state police, but warned that the reform could worsen Nigeria’s security and human rights problems if state-controlled forces were allowed to operate without stringent safeguards and independent oversight.

Ojukwu said decentralising the country’s policing system had become an urgent necessity because the existing centralised structure was overstretched, slow to respond to emergencies and increasingly incapable of matching the security demands of a vast and populous country.

He spoke yesterday at the 66th Annual General Conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, where he challenged lawyers and policymakers to ensure that any state policing framework places citizens’ rights at its core.

“If you don’t have State Police, you can never have adequate security,” Ojukwu said, stressing that Nigeria could not continue relying on a policing structure in which a relatively limited number of officers were expected to protect a population of more than 200 million people.

According to him, the consequence is a security system in which response to emergencies can take too long, leaving vulnerable communities exposed.

“The response time is so long that we only live by God’s grace,” he said.

Ojukwu’s intervention came against the backdrop of a persistent security crisis that has placed extraordinary pressure on Nigeria’s law-enforcement agencies.

“With State Police, the governors will have the wherewithal to respond quickly. The police will be more effective because they know the terrain; they know the people,” he said.

While advocating state police, the NHRC chief drew a clear line between decentralising policing and handing governors unchecked security powers.