A former Deputy National Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Olabode George, has lamented over rising insecurity in the country and appealed to President Bola Tinubu to invite former heads of state, like Yakubu Gowon, Olusegun Obasanjo, Abdulsalami Abubakar, Ibrahim Babangida and other elders who at one point or the other managed security in the country, to help provide input to resolving the menace.
The Atona Oodua of Yorubaland who spoke on Wednesday during a press conference, noted that he was not speaking from the perspective of opposition but as a concerned Nigerian elder statesman, stressing that the time to establish state police is now.
He said, “Our nation is on the precipice of total disintegration. President Tinubu should invite the elderly ones. The old service chiefs, experience with age and all that, General Yakubu Gowon is there. Olusegn Obasanjo is there, Abdulsalami Abubakar is there, even Ibrahim Babangida, General Aliyu Gusau is still there and some other generals from the South. Let him hand pick some of them to contribute. It is no longer just one man.
“The situation in the country today as par security matters is heart-rending. Nowhere is safe. It is a direct challenge to the government. There are modern equipment that the military must buy, the drones. With live drones all over, if you remember the second in command to Bin Laden was in his sitting room, when America fired its missiles using drones to take him out. If we are serious, we can procure, train our security personnel. Even Yemeh is using drones.
“If they say that there are criminals and kidnappers, let them get our officers, train them and buy them necessary tools. Too much grammar cannot help anymore because these guys are all over the place. Nobody is secured now in this country.
“Look at our state chairman, he was kidnapped on his way back from the south-west meeting. Thank God that he is safe now but what about the trauma of staying with these guys for three days. It will take him time to be able to recover. They killed two Obas recently in Ekiti State. It is sacrilegious to kill an Oba.
“I must commend the late governor of Ondo State, Akeredolu for establishing Amotekun. But what can they do without weaponising them?
Speaking about the need for state policing, he said, “The time to revisit the issue of state police is now. There is a need to have state police. President Tinubu must not shy away from it. He should go and get the report of the constitutional conference of 2014. In the US where we copied their system they have multi-level policing.
“The 1999 constitution is also part of the obstacle that is recklessly disturbing the growth of our nation. It is a military concept. Why should one man decide what will happen to my local government in Lagos Island? In Sokoto one man decides what will happen in one local government there, because every month everybody heads to Abuja. All the resources go to Abuja from where they will decide what will go to the local government.
“The governors have limited powers because they are dealing with federal police. So with state police before you can call the federal police the state police would have taken action. The impact of the community police is unimaginable, because he speaks the language. He knows the majority of the people and their houses because they live together.
“Time for state police is now. Government must have respect for the 2014 constitutional conference. We need to restructure taking all the resources to Abuja doesn’t make sense,” George added.
