It’s unconstitutional, authoritative for Buhari to reject state police, says Clark

An elder statesman and Leader of Pan-Niger Delta Forum, Edwin Clark, has said that it was unconstitutional and authoritative for President Muhammadu Buhari to reject state police.

Buhari had in a recorded interview aired by Channels Television last week Wednesday, said that state police, being clamoured for by many Nigerians, was not an option in the efforts to address crimes and other social vices in Nigeria.

But Clark, a former Federal Commissioner for Information, in a statement on Monday, condemned Buhari’s position on the vexed issue.

He said, “Mr President dismissed the call for state police in the country. He said that state police was not an option, that governors will misuse it. He gave an unrelated instance of the relationship between state governors, and local governments, that there is no functional local government in the country.

“While the President is right that no local government in this country truly functions as provided by the constitution, not even the joint account under which state governments receive monies on behalf of the local governments because the accounts are fully controlled by the state governors, it is not enough to dismiss the demand for state police.

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“As I stated in my recent interview, it is a popular agitation by Nigerians and was robustly discussed and agreed upon during the 2014 National Conference.

“It is very unfortunate that the state governors who are elected under the party are the ones running the party today. But it is unconstitutional and authoritative for Mr President to say that state police, which was even recommended by the El-Rufai Committee as one of its items under devolution of power to be transferred from the executive list in schedule 1 of the 1999 constitution, as amended, to schedule II of the concurrent list, should be discarded.

“I totally agree with Mr President that most state governors have undermined the provisions of the 1999 Constitution, where local government is provided for under Section 8. They do not only abuse the joint account system but also engage in establishing caretaker committees rather than conducting a free, fair, and democratic election.

“I also agree with Mr President that state police could be used by state governors in persecuting perceived political opponents, but it is also true that the federal government is also using the Nigeria Police Force to persecute perceived political opponents, undermining the National Assembly and obstructing free speeches.

“But that does not mean that the whole idea of state police should be discarded? That will mean throwing away the baby with the bathwater.”