The majority city of Nigerians believe in the police, the Ijaw leader tells Buhari

Elder statesman and leader of the Ijaw National Council, Chief Edwin Clark has said the majority of Nigerians are in support of state police.

He was reacting to President Muhammadu Buhari’s opposition to the request for state police.

In an interview with Channels Television, Buhari had said state police was not an option because governors would misuse it.

Clark, in a statement, said the excuses given by the president were not enough for him to have dismissed state police.

He said: “While the President is right that no local government in this country truly functions as provided by the constitution, not even the joint account under which state governments receive monies on behalf of the local governments because the accounts are fully controlled by the governors, it is not enough to dismiss the demand for a state police.”

To buttress his points, Clark quoted Sections 214 (1) of the 1999 constitution: “There shall be a Police Force for Nigeria, which shall be known as the Nigerian Police force, and subject to the provisions of this section, no other police shall be established for the Federation or any part thereof.”

He also quoted Section 215 (4): “Subject to the provisions of this section, the governor of a state or such Commissioner for Government of the state as he may authorize in that behalf, may give to the Commissioner of Police of that State such lawful directions concerning the maintenance and securing of public safety and public order within the State as he may consider necessary, and the Commissioner of Police shall comply with those directions or cause them to be complied with provided that before carrying out any such directions under the foregoing provisions of this subsection the Commissioner of Police may request that the matter be referred to the President or such Minister of the Government of the Federation as may be authorized in that behalf by the President for his directions.”

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