Suleiman Abba: I Support Local Government Police In Addition To State Police

Former Inspector General of Police Suleiman Abba has thrown his weight behind the executive-sponsored state police bill before the National Assembly, while arguing that Nigeria should also establish local government police to strengthen community policing and improve crime prevention at the grassroots.

Speaking during an interview with Arise News on Thursday, Abba, the 17th Inspector General of Police, said the country has moved beyond debating whether state police should exist and should now focus on ensuring its successful implementation. He also disclosed that he has long advocated for local government police, dating back to recommendations he made to government in 2009.

According to him, state policing is a major development that requires broad support.

“The issue of state police is certainly a very important development that requires the contributions of all who can make it successful. I think we’ve passed the stage of people expressing their views about it. What we should do now is to support the government to ensure that state policing is greatly established so that at the end of the day we’ll have what we’ve been desiring for, state policing,” he said.

Abba said the ultimate goal of state policing is community policing, where citizens actively collaborate with law enforcement to prevent crime.

“State policing ends up with community policing. And in community policing, one of the principles is that people should say how they want to be policed so that they collaborate with the police to achieve the objectives,” he said.

He added that although he supports the proposed state police structure, he has consistently advocated for an additional policing layer at the local government level.

“What I’m saying is, all along, I’ve been in support of local government police, not even state police. As far back as 2009, while I was in NIPSS, in my research, among the recommendations I made to government was to establish or re-establish the local government police because that’s where collaboration can be effected between the people, that’s the citizens or the community people.”

Explaining the proposed arrangement under the executive bill, Abba said state governments would be responsible for establishing and overseeing their own police services, while the federal police would continue to handle national security and federal offences.

He, however, questioned whether many states have the financial capacity to sustain effective police services.

“The main concern is, would the states, and when I say the states, will the governors give us what we are desiring for? If the federal government has not been too successful in funding the police, in equipping the police, in training the police… will the governors be able to concentrate and make sure that the police they are establishing will be well-equipped, well-trained, well-organised and well-supervised according to the laws of the federation?”

Abba said policing is an expensive responsibility and suggested that each state should establish a police trust fund to finance its operations.

“I would expect each state to establish a police trust fund or what we call security trust fund so that they can be able to have enough fund to take care of their state police.”

On the relationship between federal and state police, Abba said the proposed legal framework provides clear responsibilities for both levels of policing.

According to him, the federal police would focus on enforcing federal laws, protecting federal infrastructure and tackling serious crimes such as terrorism and banditry, while state police would handle routine law enforcement and criminal investigations within their jurisdictions.

He also said there should be national standards in areas such as police welfare, funding and community cooperation, while allowing flexibility for states to reflect local cultural and security realities in their operations.

Adebayo Ademide