Bishop backs National Assembly on state police

Rt. Rev. Tunde Adeleye, the Bishop of Calabar Diocese, Anglican Communion, says Nigeria needs to fight crime at the foundation level through the establishment of state police.

Adeleye spoke on Tuesday in Calabar at a media briefing to mark the commencement of the 2018 Synod of the diocese.

The clergyman said that state police was one of the characteristics of true federalism.

“Each state or even local government should have its own police. This is done all over the world where we have true federalism.

“Let us have a state police so that we can fight crime from the foundation, ‘’ he said.

He said that situations where state governors were regarded as chief security officers of their states, but could not give directives to the commissioner of police, was contrary to what obtain in a federal system of government.

According to him, such situations had made it always impossible for the governors to curtail insecurity in their states.

“There is too much concentration of powers at the federal level. Power has to devolve to the federating states, ‘’ Adeleye said.

He further suggested that, each state should be allowed to develop its own educational system in line with its own peculiarities.

The bishop said that, this would help each state to design its own educational system according to the needs of the people of the state.

“Educational system should be based on states own plan. Each state should be free to design its own system.

“Before now, we used to have primary seven in the North, and this was working well at the time. Each state much be allowed to develop according to its own pace, ‘’ he said.

He called on Nigerians to always pray for the unity of the country, adding that, with prayers things will change for the better.