Amid worsening insecurity across the country, a coalition of civil society groups in Plateau State has renewed calls for the establishment of state police, arguing that the current centralized structure of the Nigeria Police Force has failed to adequately secure lives and property.
The group, which met in Jos for a security dialogue, said that Nigeria’s diverse security challenges — ranging from banditry in the North-West, farmer-herder clashes in the Middle Belt, to cultism and kidnappings in the South — require tailored responses that only state-based policing can deliver.
In their communique, the coalition noted that community trust and faster intelligence gathering are crucial to curbing insecurity. “A police officer deployed from Abuja cannot understand the dynamics of local conflicts the way a community-based officer would. We need policing that speaks the language of the people and operates within their cultural realities,” one of the leaders stated.
The group urged the Federal Government to amend the constitution and provide a legal framework that would allow states to set up, fund, and regulate their own police formations. Critics, however, have raised fears that governors could misuse state police to target political opponents.
Proponents countered that such risks can be mitigated by strong oversight mechanisms, insisting that the present structure has already failed millions of Nigerians.
