Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu says Lagos State is ready for the creation of state police, adding that the state boasts of at least 10,000 men to be immediately deployed once the Federal Government and the National Assembly firm up constitutional provisions for the establishment of state police.
Sanwo-Olu, who stated this on Thursday during a media chat, said he eagerly awaits the creation of state police in the country.
According to him, men of the Lagos Neighborhood Safety Corps (LNSC), a uniformed security agency established by a law of the Lagos State House of Assembly in 2016, would be pulled out to join state police.
Sanwo-Olu said, “I am an advocate for it. I believe we needed it like yesterday. And the interesting thing is that we have the Neighborhood Watch and it is still functional, about 6,000 of them. The good news is that I have given approval for us to recruit additional 4,000 of them. And this is job for our youths, our able-bodied men.
“What that means for me is that if they give approval for state police, I have 10,000 men that I can further train and get them ready and these are people that know the entire community, the nooks and crannies.”
“I am waiting for it,” the governor stressed, adding that men of the neighbourhood watch, if empowered to bear assault rifles, will surpass expectations.
Sanwo-Olu said already “they provide intelligence at our state security meetings and you can imagine what happens if that is turned around to a proper security agency”.
State police has been a subject of controversy since the Seventh National Assembly and has failed to make it through the amendment phase.
This week, a Constitution Amendment Bill to introduce state police scaled second reading in the House of Representatives.
Last week, President Bola Tinubu and 36 state governors considered the creation of state police as solution to the menacing security challenges like kidnapping and banditry ubiquitous in the country.
Regional socio-political groups such as Afenifere, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Middle Belt Forum, and the Northern Elders’ Forum, have repeatedly called for state police as a solution to the myriad of increasing security challenges confronting the nation.
Already, states in the South-West geopolitical zone have formed the Amotekun while their counterparts in the South-East also created the state-owned security outfit Ebube Agu. The Benue Guards has also been operational in Benue State in the North Central while states like Katsina, Zamfara, and other bandit-prone sub-nationals have also come up with similar state-established outfits.
However, these outfits have not been as effective as anticipated as they don’t have the backing of the Federal Government or the Presidency while states continue to demand that Amotekun, Ebube Agu, and others be granted license to bear assault rifles like AK-47s to confront lethal gun-toting marauders.