Governor Jang campaigns for state police

Governor Jonah Jang of Plateau state on Tuesday in Abuja, said that the creation of state police would enable state governors to effectively tackle crisis in their states. He said this when he led a delegation of his cabinet and some PDP members in the state, to pay a courtesy call on Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, the party’s National Chairman.

“We are running a federation in Nigeria; that is why we are called the Federal Republic of Nigeria. In fact, higher institutions like universities have their own police and Nigeria, the biggest black nation in the world has a central police system,’’ Jang said.

He noted with regret that as governor of a state, with constitutional power to be the chief security officer of the state, he could not “command even a fly.’’

Jang disclosed that most times, his decisions were not followed by security operatives after meeting with the State Security Council, because they had to take order from their bosses.

“A typical example was when the Plateau crisis started in 2008, we arrested 250 people from Niger and Chad and we were then investigating them.

“Suddenly, we had to bring them to Abuja to be investigated in Abuja and we never saw them again.

“This development negates the constitution of the country which states that an alleged criminal should be investigated and tried where he committed the offence.

“But this is not happening in Nigeria because of the system of the security we have,’’ Jang said.

He added that the creation of state police would also ensure better training and performance of police personnel in the country.

“We believe that states should be able to run their own police force. The Nigeria police are like civil servants, people join the service and rise through the ranks and they are not trained.

“If states have their own police, training will be organised at that level and the police will be better trained and equipped,” he argued.

He said that the military was brought to douse tension in crisis prone states because the police could not wake up to its responsibility.

The governor advised the PDP leadership to continue its reconciliatory moves so that members who left to contest elections against the party would return to the party and contribute to its development.

In his response, Tukur assured Jang that the party under his leadership was committed to equity and justice for all its members.

He also said that the party was poised to show the light in terms of driving democracy dividends for opposition parties to follow.

The Governors’ Forum has also called for the creation of state police in Nigeria.