Onyedi Orjiabor and Sanni Onogu, Abuja
THE Senate on Wednesday called for the decentralisation of the Police command structure.
It also outlined far-reaching strategies to deal with insurgency and banditry.
These were part of the recomendations in the reports submitted by two Senate ad-hoc committees on Wednesday.
One of the committees found that the distant command structure of the police denies its personnel the capacity to obtain real-time intelligence to prevent crime and apprehend criminals.
“Therefore, it is the recommendation of this ad-hoc committee that this important/vital institution needs a major reorganisation to bring it closer to the people and to make its operations more responsive to the security needs of the people.
“We recommend that the police command structure be decentralised with operational and budgetary powers vested in the zonal commands,” the committee said.
The decentralisation, it said, should produce the following commands: Kano/Jigawa/Kastina, Sokoto/Zamfara/Kebbi, Kaduna/Niger/FCT; Kwara/Kogi/Nassarawa, Benue/Plateau/Taraba/Gombe, Adamawa/Yobe/Bauchi/Borno Lagos/Ogun, Oyo/Osun/Ekiti/Ondo, Edo/Delta/Bayelsa, Rivers/Akwa-Ibom/Cross Rivers, Imo/Abia and Anambra/Enugu/Ebonyi.
The committee said it was important to bring the police closer to the people.
It proposed State Security Councils, which should have operational control of officers and men deployed to zones, states and local government areas in terms of budgeting, command and operations.
It also recommended that the councils should have powers of recruitment, particularly for general duties officers and constables; and should have integrated strike mobile squads, special weapons and tactics (SWAT) and intelligence units under their control for riot control and quelling insurrection before they assume serious dimensions.
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The committee said the State Security Councils should be overseen by a civilian security structure, comprising the governor, Zonal Assistant Inspector-General of Police and state police commissioner.
Others are the military commander, Immigration, Customs, Correctional Service, traditional rulers, leaders of faith-based organisations, senators from the state, House of Representatives members from each state, House of Assembly speaker, representatives of trade unions/labour/trade organisation/ business community, among others.
The report says that a similar structure should be established at the Area Command, council’s and ward levels.
It said that at the council levels, the council chairman, district/village heads and heads of autonomous communities should be involved, among others.
The committee said funding of community police should be derived from the grants appropriated from the state Assembly to each local government area in line with the size of the community police formation based on the budget from the local government area for them.
It said the Federal Government is expected to give grants to the zonal commands, while each state should appropriate funds from its Assembly for the zonal commands.
It said the Inspector-General of Police at the federal level is expected to be a general superintendent.
As part of its findings, the report says most of the security agencies were operating in isolation, with very little, if any, coordination between them.
“This most unfortunate situation can be seen from the recent face-off between the Office of the IGP and the Police Service Commission which degenerated into open litigation in the law courts.
“Most recently, the public release of letters from the NSA’s Office to the Service Chiefs discountenancing their engagement with the Chief of Staff to the President bordering on security matters is a loud testament of the level of disharmony and inter-personnel conflict and intrigues within the nation’s security and defence establishments.
“Inter-agency rivalry and endless battles of supremacy have undermined operational effectiveness. This has worked against cooperation, sharing of information and effectiveness of intelligence and operational platforms for coordinated internal security operations.”
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