The Governor of Taraba State, Darius Ishaku, has said that Nigeria must embrace local policing to end insecurity.
Ishaku said this on Monday while speaking on his challenges as the state governor during a live interview on “Journalist Hangout” programme on Television Continental.
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.”
Ishaku 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.
“We have to mature into the system we have created. For instance, if there was an issue in the state and you, as the chief executive, cannot order the police, they have to receive an order from someone who receives an order from somewhere else; all these take time.
“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. If you see them dressed, you’d love them.”
Talking about his challenges as the governor, Ishaku said that his tenure has been bitter, sour, and sweet.
Ishaku said, “It has been bitter because I never imagined seeing the crisis and deaths I saw, and I pray that I never see such again. You’d see situations where an innocent man, his wife, and children would be eating, and someone would wipe them out of existence.
“And you’re here sitting as the executive governor of the state, and there is nothing you can do about it; this makes me bitter because it is a very sad state.”