A Warri based lawyer and human rights activist, Mr. Oghenejabor Ikimi Esq on Sunday said the Nigeria Police Force, NPF needs restructuring for it to perform optimally.
The legal practitioner said the problems of the Nigeria Police Force, NPF is that” it is over-centralized.”
He made the assertion during a chat with our correspondent while reacting to the dissolution of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad” SARS by the Inspector General of Police, IGP Mohammed Adamu.
He said,”The Police need total restructuring. We need six Inspector Generals of Police in each geopolitical region.
Ikimi stressed that “It has to be decentralized with six Inspector Generals of Police in each geopolitical region.
“Fighting crime in South-South is different from fighting crime in the South-West because, in the South-South, you have different terrains. You have more riverine areas.”
While noting that the six regions have their peculiar security challenges, Ikimi argued that there will be indiscipline over-centralizing the Nigeria Police Force.
“Do you know that each Police Station has imprest? It’s provided for in the budget. So, where does it enter from Abuja down to Delta here? Where does it enter?
Reacting to the scrapping of SARS by the IGP, Ikimi said nobody should be happy yet.
He said the scrapping is just going to be a nomenclature just as he pointed out that SARS is a department in the Nigerian Police Force.
Ikimi said, “They’re going to bring a new SARS and change the nomenclature and put another one. Maybe, Special Robbery Squad, Special Squad.”
He also said the #EndSARS protest has not achieved any positive results nationwide.
According to him,”That’s why I did not even think of joining the #EndSARS because the problems in the Nigeria Police Force is more than SARS together.”
