ZAMFARA State governor, Abdul’aziz Yari, last weekend shocked many Nigerians when he announced that he had relinquished his responsibility as chief security officer of the state because he had no control over the security machinery in the state. Yari told reporters in Talata Mafara that his decision stemmed from the seeming helplessness of the state government and the people over recurring killings in the state caused by cattle rustlers and marauders. ”We have been facing serious security challenges over the years, but in spite of being governor and chief security officer of the state, I cannot direct security officers on what to do nor sanction them when they err. As chief security officer, the nomenclature is just a name,” he said.
Dozens of the residents have been killed by gunmen over the last few months during their raids of villages. In one of the attacks carried out in February this year, 41 persons were reportedly killed by bandits who invaded Birane, a sleepy agrarian village in Zurmi Local Government Area of Zamfara State. Few days after the dastardly killings, March 29 to be precise, another orgy of killing took place in Bawon-Daji village where the gunmen left 15 people dead after their heinous crime. In April, the state recorded another round of killings when suspected herdsmen attacked and killed 30 people in Kabaro and Danmani villages in Maru Local Government Area. Last month, 52 people in Malitawa Village in Gidan Goga district of Maradun Local Government Area lost their lives in another raid by gunmen .
Early this month, the rampaging hoodlums raided and killed 15 residents in another village in Anka Local Government Area. Aside from his frustration about the intractable killings, the embattled governor’s outburst appears plausible looking at huge sum of money the government had invested in providing vehicles and other equipment for the police in the state. Recently, the Secretary to the State Government, Prof. Abdullahi Shinkafi, disclosed that the state government had purchased 421 security vehicles from 2011 to date to tackle security challenges in the state. He said: “From 2011 to date, the state government has spent billions of naira to address security challenges facing various communities, especially at the remote parts of the state. Even in the 2018 budget, we proposed to spend billions of naira for the procurement of additional vehicles and security equipment as part of the government’s measures to address security challenges in the state.” After spending so much to enhance the operations of the police in the state, it is naturally expected that the police would reciprocate by always responding whenever they are needed to address security challenges in any part of the state. But this is never so.
The gesture which is expected to engender a symbiotic relationship is hampered by some provisions of the constitution which centralise the operations of the police. Section 215 (4) of the country’s constitution, which dwells on the appointment of the Inspector-General of Police and control of the Nigeria Police Force tacitly empowers state governors to give lawful directives but at the same time includes a clause that provides that such directives are subject to the approval of some other authorities.
It reads: “Subject to the provisions of this section, the Governor of a state or such Commissioner of the Government state as he may authorise in that behalf, may give to the Commissioner of Police of that state such lawful directions with respect to the maintenance and securing of public safety and public order within the state as he may consider necessary, and the Commissioner of Police shall comply with those directions or cause them to be complied with: Provided that before carrying out any such directions under the foregoing provisions of this subsection, the Commissioner of Police may request that the matter be referred to the President or such minister of the Government of the Federation as may be authorised in that behalf by the President for his directions.” This lacuna in the constitution and the concomitant challenges compelled Taraba State governor, Darius Ishaku, to describe himself and his governorcolleagues as mere toothless bulldogs who cannot bite.
Ishaku, whose state has also been serially attacked by gunmen, said that state governors are regarded as chief security officers of their respective states without control over any security establishment to help them work as such. He noted that as governors and chief security officers of their states, they have the enormous constitutional responsibility to protect the lives and property of their people but lack control over the security agencies that are all manned by the Federal Government. He said: “If I had control over the police, I would be able to successfully curb the wanton killings and destruction and other criminal activities going on in the state.
This has made governors to look like toothless bulldogs.” Also bemoaning the spate of killings in Benue State, Governor Samuel Ortom recently lamented his powerlessness in using his position to order the police or the army to take certain actions. Following the limitations in exercising their powers as chief security officers of their states to give instructions to the police, the three governors: Yari, Darius and Ortom together with many other Nigerians at various times have called for the creation of state police to serve as an alternative to the present arrangement and ultimately stem the tide of criminal activities and killings across the country. Vice President Yemi Osinbajo during a security summit organised by the senate earlier in the year, also endorsed the creation of state police. He said state policing system is the way to go because having a centralised system cannot effectively secure the nation.
“For a country our size to meet the one policeman to 400 persons, according to the UN prescribed ratio, we would require almost triple the number of our current police force. Far more funding for the military and security agencies is required,” he said. “We cannot police a country the size of Nigeria centrally from Abuja. State police and other community policing methods are clearly the way to go. “The nature of our security challenges is complex. Securing Nigeria’s over 900sq/km and its 180 million people requires far more men and materials than we have at the moment. It also requires a continual re-engineering of our security architecture and strategies. This has to be a dynamic process.”
Zamfara State governor, Yari, who is also the chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum backed the Vice President’s call, saying: “The creation of state police would help in addressing the spate of insecurity in the country.” He dismissed fears that state police would become a weapon of coercion if left in the hands of state governments, arguing that if governors are not doing the same with state courts, it is doubtful if they would with state police. To ensure that state police does not become an additional burden on states some of whom are finding it difficult to pay salaries, Yari recommended that the idea should be gradual and not what all the states can do at the same time.
