Alex Enumah in Abuja
As many Nigerians declare support for the proposed state police, a former chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Chidi Odinkalu, has faulted the timing as well as the exclusion of citizens in the debate.
The law professor who claimed that currently there are two versions of the state police bill pending at the National Assembly, alleged that the police were usually used to rig elections.
“We are talking about becoming the most fundamental power of the state in an election season. And we are talking about becoming the most significant power of the state without debate.
“To this point, in fact, there are two different versions of the bill going to the National Assembly; an executive bill passed by the Senate and a different one passed by the House of Representatives. No citizen has seen those bills nor participated in the viewing, as citizens are entitled to do”, he said.
Faulting the process further, Odinkalu drew the distinction between security and law, adding that the police duty borders on law enforcement while the issue of internal security is that of the Department of State Service (DSS)
“The police is a law enforcement institution. There is a difference in the Nigerian state between security and law.
“The governors are not complaining that we should decentralize the DSS. They are complaining they should own the police.
“These are governors who have never funded their Ministries of Justice. Now they will find money to give to police because police is used for illegal elections. They will not fund the Ministries of Justice, which are essential for putting away the criminals who endanger Nigerians.
“And nobody there is talking about the funding of Ministries of Justice.
Ask all of these governors who have gone away: how much have they spent on their Ministries of Justice in the past four years?
It is in accounting for their fingers. But they are investing in the police, and they want us to believe that this is about how to protect the citizens”, he said.
