Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu has advised the Federal Government to tackle insecurity in the country with the appropriate approach.
He gave the recommendation during his appearance on Channels Television’s breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily, on Wednesday in Abuja.
“We are applying the wrong solution to problems that are clearly within our reach to resolve; the issue is not funding,” the lawmaker said.
“If you bring the whole money in the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and give to the police, nothing will change – if you do that also with the Army, nothing will change; the problem is structure, not the funding.”
Senator Ekweremadu explained that this led to the move by the Senate to amend the constitution to allow for the creation of state and community police.
He noted that Nigeria is challenged in many directions, especially in the area of security and something needs to be done to address the issue on time.
According to the Deputy Senate President, the society is created in such a way that it comes with a lot of responsibilities and it requires some privileges and powers to carry out those responsibilities.
“One of the responsibilities, as I said, is the issue of protection of lives and properties,” said Ekweremadu.
He added, “In the formation of the society, government is given enormous powers to have control of instruments of cohesion and so, what has happened now is that the criminal elements have overwhelmed the government and government cannot be able to perform that responsibility of protecting lives and property.”
The lawmaker further condemned the incident where seven police officers were killed by gunmen on Tuesday in the nation’s capital.
He wondered how such attack could have happened despite the weapons and equipment the police are using to secure the Federal Capital Territory.
The senator said if such could happen to policemen that are well-trained, there is need to protect the lives of “citizens who die on daily basis and nobody accounts for them.”
“The criminal elements have overwhelmed the security sector and that’s the issue I’m making. We need to do something and that’s what we are talking about by decentralising the police,” Ekweremadu insisted
