The Governor of Taraba State, Darius Ishaku, has advocated the adoption of Local Policing in Nigeria, adding that it is the best tool to tackle insecurity in the country.
Ishaku who stated this in an interview on Monday lamented that people often claimed that some of the reasons for not keeping police under the state’s control were that governors use them as instruments against their opponents.
He added, “But are they not still misusing it at the federal level? I conducted elections, and in my local government, I was defeated. Someone was asking me why I let that happen. I had to tell them to leave it; it was the people’s choice. A lot of people were shocked.
He said, “We must tell ourselves the truth: what will work will work and what will not work will not.
“We say we are copying the American constitution, but they have America’s local government, state, and federal police. This is to ensure that what is too big for the local police would be handled by the states’ and bigger issues than her capacity are handled by the federal police.
“But I don’t know whose wisdom was used in drafting our constitution. They removed that and put the police under the Federal Government.”
“The only solution to insecurity is to decentralise the police, embrace local police. Our local police marshals have started operations in Taraba state, and we have over 2000 marshals distributed across the states. You can call them the Taraba Amotekuns’. They have started operations, and we are willing to train more.”
