Marvel Akpoyibo, a former Deputy Inspector General of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), has said that for the establishment of state police to work effectively, the federal and state governments must take into consideration training, equipment, and funding, News.ng reports.
Akpoyibo made the remarks during an interview on Channels Television on Thursday.
The former deputy police chief warned that if state police officers are not well-trained, properly equipped with the right weapons, and adequately funded, there is a tendency for governors to take advantage of them.
He said, “Now, we must not see the creation of state police as an end in itself. It’s not a fashion. It’s an attempt to ensure effective policing of our communities, of our states, of our forests, of our localities.
“That is the essence. It’s not a fashion. Therefore, if we are putting state police in place, the state police we are talking about must be well-trained, well-equipped, and well-funded.
“If we don’t fund them, if we don’t train them and their salaries kept in consolidated funds, of course, the state governments can blackmail them and threaten them with withholding of their salaries and all that trash. So, when measures like these are constantly put in place, it will be difficult for the state government to use them for their own personal interest. So, they must be funded.”
According to him, if these issues are not addressed, there will be problems.
“Without funding, without adequate funding, adequate training, adequate equipment, there is nothing we can achieve in this regard. So, we must address all these issues holistically. Otherwise, we’ll be making a mistake thinking that, oh, once we have created the state police, leave them on their own.
“Oh, well, that’s the end of the problem. We’ll be deceiving ourselves. Just the state police themselves must be properly equipped, must be properly funded, and they must be trained.
“And of course, their salaries and their welfare properly taken care of. Not what we have now on ground today,”
Watch the clip:
