Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Olu Falae, has said that Nigeria must adopt state policing to ensure improved security across the federation.

Falae, now a traditional ruler in Akure North, Ondo State, told Vanguard in a recent interview that Nigeria operated native authority police in major towns before the 1967 civil war and he did not see the reason why policing should not be decentralised in 2025. 

His words, “I feel very passionate about this state police matter. Now, any organisation that is called a government, whether it’s local government, or state government, or Federal Government, has the power to make laws and regulations. That’s why it’s called government, governed by law. 

“They also have the intrinsic power to enforce their own enactments with their own authority through a police force. A government, local, or state, should not make laws that will be enforced by the police created by another level of government…

“Even in colonial times, the British who colonised Nigeria, they knew what I was talking about. They also had native authority police. Every town, not state, every town had its own native authority police.

“Every major town in Nigeria had its police. Why? There are politicians there. Why did they not hijack the police?

“And it’s now clear that we’ll say where is federation. A federation is not a unitary state. Power is decentralised. Why should the enforcement of law not be decentralised? What’s the logic? In any case, law and order are broken down in many places. That should tell us that state police is an absolute necessity.

“Before the civil war broke out in 1967, before then, you had native authority police in the major towns. For some time, Western Nigerian police were headed by Omitowoju.

“But when the civil war came, the army was anxious to beef up the size of the Nigerian army to meet the challenge. And so they took all these various levels of police and integrated them into the army, gave them additional training, because it is easier to convert a policeman to a soldier than to take a raw bushman and make him a soldier. So they trained them and absorbed them to the Nigerian army.

“Now, when the war ended, they forgot to desegregate the army and let the policemen go back as policemen. That’s how we lost the advantage of local authority. In the north, they were called Dandoka.

“Every local government had its police force. If Adeleke was in charge of the constabulary for many years, and if somebody stole a goat in Okearo, they went and arrested him. But if somebody was counterfeiting money somewhere, Nigerian police were going to arrest him, or if he committed murder.

“The boundaries were well defined. There was no clash. We said, if they had two players, there’d be a clash.

“There was no clash. What clash? Are we idiots? So, if what is happening now has not convinced people that state police is necessary, then I don’t know what can convince them.”

Recently appointed Chairman of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the Pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, Falae said the police force of the Indian Railway Corporation, a parastatal, is bigger than the size of the Nigeria Police Force.

“When I was in America, I was in Yale University. There was Yale police. My university had its police force, that could arrest and detain. And in colonial times, provincial governments, regional governments exercised police powers,” he said.

“There are three elements in police power. The power to arrest, to detain, and prosecute. Those three powers were given to forest guards in the forestry law in colonial times.

“So, when Ondo State Government wanted to introduce Amotekun, you know, there was a lot of hullabaloo, some Attorney-Generals in Abuja were saying they had no power to do something. I said, ‘Tell him he’s an idiot. He should shut up.’

“Where was he when the 19 states in the north created Hisbah? They passed state law to create Hisbah. What is Hisbah? Sharia police exercising the power to arrest, detain, and prosecute. What was Ondo State going to do that was different from that? None.

“I said, don’t listen to him. And in any case, you can just take your forestry law, Ondo State, and amend the mandate. The mandate is that forest guards should protect trees.

“And anybody who breaches any of the provisions regarding the trees should be arrested and detained. Expand the mandate to say forest guards will now protect not only trees, but also crops planted by people and the people themselves.

“They’ve always had the power to arrest, detain, and prosecute.

“It’s not a new thing. So, states, local governments have always had the power of the police.

“So, therefore, if I were a governor, I would start my state police and wait to be arrested.

“Yes, I would win in the court because I would demonstrate that I already have police powers in my forestry law. That other states in the north have police force.

“The purpose is to manage a particular area of their lives. I want police to manage an area that is important to us. But police is police. I don’t know why people are still talking about the need for police force.

“It is clear that state police is necessary. It is clear that the states already have the power to create police forces at the state level, to exercise the police power inherent in every government, which they have used in the case of forest guards.

“The same powers forest guards are exercising, I will give the same powers to state police. Power to arrest, detain and prosecute.”