Chief Chekwas Okorie, the Convener and National Chairman of Igbo Agenda Dialogue (IAD), has expressed concern over the country’s implementation of state policing, describing it as alarming and unhealthy for Nigeria’s security.
In an interview with The SUN, the founder of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) also said that the outcome of the recent political party primaries showed that Nigeria’s democracy was still far from reaching the desired standard.
While he was talking on the implementation of state policing, he said, “Without community policing, you can never achieve security in a place as large as Nigeria.
For example, in Abia State, last week, Fulani people rounded up a young man and his mother returning from farm and phoned the family to bring N10 million ransom. In the course of making that phone call, the man used his local dialect to tell them where they were being kept.”
He said the abductors reportedly assaulted the victim because they did not understand what he was saying. According to him, while the kidnappers waited for the ransom payment, local residents organised themselves, surrounded the area and rescued the victims.
He argued that if they had waited for security operatives from Abuja or Umuahia, the victims might have been killed, especially if the ransom did not arrive.
He stated that the situation continued to show the need for state police and community policing, questioning why Nigeria had not developed a security structure that reached the grassroots.
He added that some countries had policing systems even at university campuses, while community-based security arrangements had existed in parts of Nigeria before the civil war and helped maintain order. He said the absence of such systems had contributed to the worsening security situation.
