Abdulmumin Jibrin, a Kano
lawmaker representing Kiru/Bebeji federal constituency, says governors should
be stripped of immunity if state police must be created.
Jibrin said the governors cannot
enjoy immunity and have control over the police at the same time.
Nigerian state governors are
immune to prosecution while in office.
The lawmaker said if the argument
for state police succeeds, “you cannot give the governors state police and give
them immunity”.
“After all who wants immunity?
All the governors are saints, aren’t they? So if they are going to take state
police, give it to them and take their immunity,” he said during a recent chat
with journalists in Abuja.
He said his opposition to state
police is predicated on most state’s inability to pay salaries.
According to Jibrin, “they
(governors) cannot even pay salary at the moment. When you go and take a
sensitive institution like the police and keep in the state, and you can’t pay
salaries, state police might even turn out to be counter-productive”.
He added: “Rather than create
state police, why don’t you increase contribution from your own allocations to
the federal government to increase the size of the force. And they already have
the structure and everything to do their job.”
YES OR NO FOR STATE POLICING?
The house of representatives
recently passed for second reading a bill seeking to establish state police.
The senate had passed a similar
bill for first reading on July 12 but Abu Ibrahim, chairman, senate committee
on police affairs, subsequently said there is no way it will get a majority
vote.
President Muhammadu Buhari in May
expressed reservation over state policing, saying it will amount to increased
financial burden.
Most governors in the country
have expressed support for the establishment of state police as a measure to
address the nation’s security challenges.
The All Progressives Congress
(APC) restructuring committee also recommended it.
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