The pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, on Friday, lauded President Bola Tinubu for his resolve to have state police established in the country.
  
In a statement by Afenifere’s National Publicity Secretary,  Jare Ajayi, the organisation asserted that Nigeria was long overdue to have state police.
  
“We are aware that President Bola Tinubu is committed to having state police take-off as soon as possible going by his pronouncements and the steps his government has taken on this issue,” Ajayi stated.
 
He added that President Tinubu’s recent remarks on the issue in Makurdi and Abuja “further demonstrated his determination to have the project  (state police) take off as soon as possible.”
  
Ajayi recalled that President Tinubu, while addressing a Town Hall meeting in Makurdi, Benue State last Wednesday, reiterated his commitment to having state police established in Nigeria.  
    
The organisation observed that the Makurdi declaration by the  President was a reiteration of what he said the day before (on Tuesday) in Abuja at the Constitution Review Legislative Dialogue on National Security organised by the House of Representatives and the Office of the National Security Adviser.  
 
Afenifere expressed the hope that state police would be established forthwith, “now that majority of the state governors and the Houses of Assembly in the country have keyed into it.”
 
Going into the memory lane, Ajayi stated that the country’s policing system was centralised with the establishment of the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) in 1960.
 
He added: “Ever since, the Force has been under the exclusive control of the Federal Government. Since a few decades ago, agitations have been made to have Police removed from the Exclusive Legislative List.  
 
“There was the M. D. Yusuf-led Presidential Committee on Police Reform in 2006. There was another one headed by Mr. Parry Osayande in 2012. The two Committees recommended the decentralisation of the Police. But various governments, including those that set the committees up, had not thought it fit to implement the recommendations.
 
“In 2021, the governors of the 17 states in Southern Nigeria unanimously called for the creation of state police. They made their position known during their meetings first in Asaba and later in Lagos and Enugu.
 
“States governors, at a recent meeting of the Council of States, have also seen the need for the establishment of state police.

“In view of the concurrency of opinions on the need to have state police now among the national and state legislators as well as the Executive Arm of Government, it is hoped that State Police will take off very soon in Nigeria.”