Former Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, has said Nigeria’s security situation would get worse.
Ekweremadu, who has been in the Senate since 2003, added that the community policing structure planned by the Nigeria Police Force is fraudulent and a distraction.
He also said the South-West security outfit code-named ‘Operation Amotekun’ is a child of circumstance because the federal policing system of the Federal Government is not working.
Ekweremadu, who spoke in an interview on Channels Television, said the NPF needed to address the lack of trust and confidence between the people and the police, noting that community policing is about making the people trust the police with intelligence.
He said, “I sympathise with Nigerians. I think we are living in denial. The security situation is so bad and the bad news is that it is going to get worse because we are not dealing with it at all.
“Nigeria lives as a federal state. We accepted before independence that is suitable for our circumstance is federalism. Since we accepted federalism, we need to look at others practising federalism.
“In those other places, the way they deal with security is to decentralise it. The idea of forming a federal system of government is that you have accepted that you have so many diversities. To respect those diversities, you have to come into a loose arrangement to do things in a way that is peculiar to the people.
“Community policing is a fraud. It is a total distraction. What they are telling us is that there is a problem between the community and the police itself and they need to address that lack of trust and confidence. That’s what community policing is all about.
“If you have a federal system, you have a complete architecture that can deal with situations in a complex manner.
“The Inspector-General came to us and told us they are going to get volunteers who will be giving police information, find out what their challenges are, why do they not trust the police, to build their confidence. That’s what they are saying but our people don’t seem to get it.
“Amotekun is a child of circumstance. Unfortunately, the federal police we have now is not working. That’s why they came together to say let us have a security outfit to deal with our problems.
“Amotekun is different from what the federal government is saying about community policing. They have personnel who are going to deal with issues unlike what the federal government is proposing.”
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