The House of Representatives has passed a bill amending the 1999 Constitution to allow the construction of state police and the legalization of regional security outfits for a second reading.

By transferring police from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent List, the current police system will be decentralized.

The bill’s sponsor, Onofiok Luke, chairman of the House Committee on Judiciary, stated in the explanatory note that it intends to amend the Constitution “to provide for state police and other state government security agencies to promote security and preserve lives and properties in Nigeria.”

The bill especially proposes an amendment to Section 197(1) by inserting new Paragraphs ‘e’ and ‘f’ to provide for ‘State Police Council’ and ‘State Police Service Commission,’ respectively.

The Second Schedule to the Constitution will also be altered in Part I by deleting Item 45 from the Exclusive Legislative List; and in Part II by inserting after Item 30 on the Concurrent Legislative List, new Items 31 and 32.

The proposal reads, “(31) The National Assembly may make laws for the establishment of the federal police and other federal government security services;

“(32) A House of Assembly may make laws for the establishment of state police and other state government security services.”

The Third Schedule to the Constitution will also be altered by inserting new Paragraphs 9 to 12.

The new paragraphs read, “(9) A State Police Council shall comprise the following members: (a) the governor, who shall be the chairman; (b) the chairman of the State Police Service Commission; and (c) State Commissioner of Police.

“(10) The functions of a State Police Council shall include (a) the organisation and administration of a State Police Force and all other matters relating thereto (not being matters relating to the use and operational control of the Force or the appointment, disciplinary control and dismissal of members of the Force); (b) the general supervision of a State Police Force; and (c) advising the governor on the appointment of State Commissioner of Police.”

Leading debate on the bill, Luke said, “Many years after independence, Nigeria has continually been beset with insecurity ranging from terrorism, kidnapping, armed robbery and domestic violence. Granted that there is no society without crime or manifestation of criminal behaviour, our inability to bring to the barest minimum crime is a scathing indictment on the current security architecture and structure in the country.

“The federal structuring of our security does not encourage community policing or localisation of policing. Recruitment and subsequent deployment of police officers in their local area is one of the major ways of curbing crime. Such officers understand the area, terrain, language, behaviour and attitude of the people he or she is policing.

“Nigeria, a country with over 201 million people, is grossly under policed with about 400, 000 police personnel. This number falls far short of the United Nation’s recommendation of ratio 1 per 400 citizens.

“The Constitution envisages Nigeria as a federal state. Granting allowance to state governments to establish police force and other security apparatuses will bring Nigeria into original constitutional contemplation of a federal state.”

The Deputy Minority Leader, Toby Okechukwu, stated that creation of state police is long overdue with the current security crises across the country.

On Monday afternoon, gunmen abducted yet-to-be known numbers of passengers at Odo-Osun around Imesi-Ile in Obokun Local Government Area of Osun State

It was gathered that the commercial vehicle from Ekiti State was going toward Ikirun through Ila road when the gunmen waylaid it at Odo-Osun and took passengers to a nearby bush.

A security source revealed that the gunmen shot severally to force the vehicle to stop before all the passengers were whisked away

Another source said volunteers of Kiriji Heritage Defenders, Hunter’s group and the police were combing bushes where the passengers were abducted.

The DPO of Imesi Police Station was said to have joined in combing the forests.

The Director-General of Kiriji Heritage Defenders, Dr Ademola Ekundayo, confirmed the development to our correspondent.

He assured volunteers of the socio-cultural group were on the trail of the abductors.

Spokesperson of Osun Police, Yemisi Opalola said: “I have not been briefed. I will get back to you on the matter”.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed has hinted that the government spends N60bn annually to repair vandalized pipelines.

Speaking yesterday in Abuja at a town hall meeting on protecting oil and gas infrastructure, he said Nigeria lost an average of 200,000 barrels per day to pipelines’ destruction.

He added statistics had shown that between January 2019 and September 2020, 1,161 pipeline points were vandalized across the nation.

Also speaking, the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, said the destruction of pipelines in the Niger Delta had made a lot of oil investors leave to region to other countries for their oil business investments.

Akpabio said perpetrators should be punished and tried openly to serve as a deterrent to others.

The Minister of Environment, Mohammed Mahmood Abubakar, said Nigeria lost 43 percent of its revenues to oil theft, calling for prosecution of all pipeline vandals.

Group Managing Director, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, Mele Kyari, said from January to May 2021, the NNPC pipeline segments had suffered 203 breaks with system 2B having 80 pipeline breaks and system 2E, 114 breaks.

He said all these had all led to a total cumulative loss of 39 million liters which amounted to N5.973bn.

 
Delta State, the southern governors set a timeline of September 1, 2021, for the promulgation of the anti-open grazing law in all member states.

Recalled that the governors had announced a total ban on open grazing in the region during the Asaba meeting.

On the state of insecurity, the southern governors re-emphasised the need for state police and urged the federal government not to be sentimental in the administration of criminal justice.

They also commiserated with families and loved ones of those who have fallen in the line of duty.

The forum also resolved that if for any reason security institutions needed to undertake an operation in any state, the chief security officer of the state which is the governor must be duly informed.

Responding to this part of the communiqué, Dr Baba-Ahmed said the position of the governors in demanding that they must be fully informed before security operations in their states take place was unacceptable.

He said there was nowhere in the Nigerian Constitution that said the president, who is the country’s chief security officer, must either get the consent or approval of a governor before exercising his responsibility.

“That is not the way to go,” he said. “The governors are members of the National Security Committee and a lot of these issues are matters that ought to be handled with some level of sensitivity and discretion and not to be thrown out in public as if they are demands which have no constitutional foundations. This particular decision taken by the southern governors has not been informed by the wisest decision-making process,” he said.

Some senior lawyers also said there was no constitutional provision for governors to give permission for security operations in their states. Prof. Paul Ananaba (SAN) said as the chief security officers of their states, the governors don’t control security agencies because security is not in the concurrent list but the exclusive list.

“They just want to cause trouble because there is no constitutional provision that would warrant them to say that,” he said.

“However, consistent with governance, there should be some understanding between the federal and state governments with respect to security. It is not fair and advisable to carry out security operations in the state without the permission of the governor.

“It ought to be down to the local government as the idea behind three-tier government, because it is the failure of the third tier that led to these insurrections in the country. Local government chairmen would have been able to take care of these things before they grow out of control,” he said.

Also responding, Sunday Ameh (SAN) said the states have only subsidiary powers to maintain security in their states although the constitution said security and welfare shall be the primary purpose of government.

“Security in Nigeria is like a unitary proposal so that the ultimate responsibility for national security lies with the president and he directs the Inspector General of Police, which is right from the top.

“Therefore, the governors cannot stop security operatives from operating in their states because when it comes to security, the president is ultimately responsible,” he said.

However, Prof Ernest Ojukwu (SAN) said the governors were right because as the chief security officers of their states, no security agency should be deployed to any state without their consent.

Prof. Wole Soyinka, Nobel laureate has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to constitute a Government of National Unity.

Speaking to BBC Pidgin on the state of the nation yesterday, which our correspondent monitored, Soyinka said this became necessary as the state of mind of a vast sections of the country mentally, spiritually and economically was that of total distrust for the government.

According to him; “This government has earned itself, either rightly or wrongly, that’s for the government to decide, but anybody who is telling this government that the people of this nation still trust it, I’m sorry, and the government believes that, it’s really plunging this nation further into the abyss.

“There’s only one thing to be done to try and win the trust of the people, and in political terms, it’s called Government of National Unity as an interim measure. That’s all. Interim measure, especially, towards the next election, in order to have a continuing confab among those who execute policies, in order to regain, of course, basically, a sense of participation, of involvement of the people.

“I know it’s a very hard pill to swallow, but as I said, it’s an interim thing. During that process, you’ll structurally examine the constitution. Okay, I know they’ve been tinkering with it here and there, but we’ve been going through that for ages, there have been constitutional review committees under various regimes. And sit down, admit your inadequacy, because this has become glaring over the years, even before the last elections.

“I’ve said over and over, I’ve spoken out on it very privately and very frankly to even members of the ruling party. The distrust is too deep and it’s only a confab, through a Government of National Unity, as an interim measure, that can actually suggest or offer a sliver of hope for the continuity of this nation.”

He said so much damage had been done in the past few years through some “centralist” and “sneaky” policies of the government such as the RUGA and the Water Resources Control Bill.

Soyinka also criticized the manner of the re-arrest of the leader of IPOB, Nnamdi Kanu and the raid on the home of Yoruba Nation agitator, Sunday Igboho.

He said although no past president had been without acts of constitutional breaches, the incumbent had a responsibility to remedy the situation.

Governors of the 17 Southern states have unanimously agreed that the next President of Nigeria should emerge from their region, puncturing the ambition of prominent politicians from the North.

The governors under the aegis of the Southern Governors Forum (SGF) made their stance known on Monday after a closed-door meeting which lasted for about five hours in Lagos.

Even though the governors spoke on insecurity in their region and also chided the federal government for not consulting them before security operatives carried out some recent offensives, they were short of mentioning the names of those fomenting trouble in the South East and South West.

The leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi who was taken to court on Tuesday last week after he was extradited was not mentioned by the 17 southern governors.

Also, the name of Yoruba activist Sunday Igboho, whose house was raided by operatives of the State Security Service (SSS), was also not mentioned in the communiqué issued by the southern governors.

The Northern Elders Forum (NEF) and other notable personalities said there was no way the region could be intimated, insisting that democracy had its tenets which must be respected.

The governors, according to the communiqué issued also discussed the current security situation in the country, open grazing, constitutional amendment and Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB).

They, however, reaffirmed their commitment to the unity of Nigeria on the pillars of equity, fairness, justice, progress and peaceful co-existence between and amongst its people.

Governors who attended the meeting are the Chairman of the forum and Governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu; Dapo Abiodun of Ogun, Gboyega Oyetola of Osun State, Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta, Nyesom Wike of Rivers; Seyi Makinde of Oyo; Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti; Douye Diri of Bayelsa, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu and Emmanuel Udom of Akwa Ibom.

While the governors of Anambra and Cross River were absent, those of Edo, Imo, Abia and Ebonyi states were represented by their deputies.

The decision of the 17 governors – drawn from three different political parties- to unanimously agree that the president should come from the South in 2023 is seen as a landmark decision.

Analysts said that it appeared the southern governors have coalesced into a single force, a development that would most likely alter the political configuration of some northern politicians.

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has eight governors from the region, same as the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) while the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) has one governor.

According to the communiqué by the governors, “The Forum reiterates its commitment to the politics of equity, fairness and unanimously agrees that the presidency of Nigeria be rotated between southern and northern Nigeria and resolved that the next president of Nigeria should emerge from the southern region.”

If this decision comes to fruition, it would have ended the ambition of key politicians in the North that have shown interest in contesting the 2023 presidential election.

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar from Adamawa State, former Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso from Kano State, Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State and Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State are among major contenders for the 2023 presidential poll. Others are Governor Bala Mohammed from Bauchi State and former Governor Ahmed Sani Yarima from Zamfara State. Most of them have directly or by proxy indicated interest to vie for the presidency.

From the South, former governor of Lagos State, Bola Tinubu, Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State, Dave Umahi of Ebonyi State; former Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, Minister of Transportation and former Governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi and former Governor Donald Duke of Cross River State are among southern politicians who are said to be eyeing the number one position in the country in 2023.

Afenifere, PANDEF back governors

Meanwhile socio-cultural groups- Afenifere and the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) have expressed total support for the resolution of the southern governors that the presidency must be ceded to the South in 2023.

Acting Leader of Afenifere, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, in a chat said the rotation of the presidency between the North and the South as advocated by the southern governors was the right thing to do in a democracy to give every section of the country a sense of belonging.

The Afenifere leader also cautioned against any attempt by the North to want to remain in power beyond 2023.

Also, PANDEF’s National Publicity Secretary, Ken Robinson, told said that the decision of the southern governors was received with elation as it represented what PANDEF stood for.

He said that other ethnic organisations such as Afenifere, Ohanaeze Ndi Igbo and the Middle Belt Forum had in the past clamoured for power shift from the North to the South. He added that PANDEF was solidly behind the decision irrespective of where the presidency will come from the three geo-political zones of the South.