Peter Obi’s Running Mate Kwankwaso Warns Against State Police
Opposition leader and Running Mate to Peter Obi on the platform of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Rabiu Kwankwaso, has repeated his opposition to the country adopting the state police system, and emphasising that those craving its establishment did so because of the deficiency of the Federal security agencies.
The former Kano State Governor in an Instagram post said: “I have always been against state police, and I can tell you the issue of state police came because of the failure of the federal or national police.”
According to Kwankwaso, the security situation had become so bad that everyone was looking for a solution, while the Federal Government appeared to be shifting responsibility to state governments.
Asked if he meant the Federal Government was surrendering to bandits, Kwankwaso clarified: “Not bandits…. You see, as a former Governor and also Minister of Defence, and somebody who has advised President on Darfur and Somalia, I think it’s one of the big mistakes that government is doing.”
Kwankwaso said the situation could be understood because governments often avoided responsibility when things went wrong.
“But one can understand if there is any failure, nobody wants to take responsibility. It’s only when there is success, everybody, even somebody who is one thousand kilometres away from it, will be claiming,” he said.
He also expressed concern over the growing calls for citizens to acquire arms to protect themselves.
“We can see how things have reversed themselves to the extent that leaders in this country are telling their citizens to go and purchase arms. They go and own arms to protect themselves. It has gone that bad,” Kwankwaso said.
He warned that widespread possession of weapons could make peace difficult.
Kwankwaso offered: “As long as people have too many arms in their hands, I can tell you there will hardly be any peace. Because even little disputes between neighbors or even husband and wife, I can tell you one may decide to go and take the arms and use it.”/INSTAGRAM
