President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has agreed to set up state police to tame the tide of insecurity across the country.
The President and state governors met at the State House on Thursday to strike the agreement as part of measures to deal with the problem.
The meeting was one of the six high points of an emergency meeting summoned by the President at the Council Chamber, Presidential Villa in view of economic hardship in the country and upsurge of insecurity in different parts of the country.
In attendance include Vice President Kashim Shettima, and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja, Nyesom Wike.
Specifically, President Tinubu approved the establishment of a committee comprising state governors and representatives of the Federal Government to, among other things, explore modalities for establishing state police.
Briefing State House Correspondents at the end of the emergency meeting, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris said far-reaching decisions were taken including the consideration for the establishment of state police. The Minister said that there will be more meetings to fine-tune the modalities for setting up state police.
He said: “The Federal Government and state governments are mulling the possibility of setting up state police. Of course, this is still going to be further discussed, a lot of work still has to be done in that direction. But the Federal Government and state governments are agreeing to the necessity of having state policy.
“This is a significant shift. But more work needs to be done in that direction. A lot of meetings will have to happen between different governments and sub-nationals to see the modalities of achieving this.”
Disclosing that the meeting was at the instance of the President to intimate the state governors about what was happening, and what the Federal Government was doing and to also hear from the state governors, their input about issues of development in this country, Idris continued: “A lot of issues were discussed about the security situation in the country. The apparent food issue that the media has also been reporting about and some other measures that will help in improving the state of our nation. “Now, the first point is that the governors and the President have agreed to set up a committee to deepen the conversation that has happened at the just-concluded meeting.
“Secondly, Mr. President and the governors have agreed that these kinds of meetings will continue in the interest of our nation.
“First, the National Security Adviser, the Director General of the state services, and the Inspector General of Police have been directed to coordinate with the state governors to look at the issue of those hoarding commodities.
“At this point, the nation requires foods to be brought out to the people so that we can control prices and put food on the table of most Nigerians, other commodity traders are busy hoarding these commodities so that Nigerians will suffer or they will make more money as a result.
“So the governors and Mr. President have taken this decision that security agencies will collaborate with the state governors to ensure that this ends.
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