Lagos Assembly to IG Egbetokun: Your Position on Multi-level Police Unacceptable

Segun James

The Lagos State House of Assembly, has told the Inspector-General of Police, Olukayode Egbetokun, that his recent position on state police was not acceptable and could only be described as personal.

Speaker of the House, Hon. Mudashiru Obasa, has therefore directed the Clerk of the House, Olalekan Onafeko, to write the Inspector-General and the National Assembly, stating that the Lagos lawmakers rejected Egbetokun’s position.

Speaking at plenary, Obasa noted that the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) and the Nigeria Safety and Civil Defence Commission (NSCDC) had not been able to solve the problems of accidents on roads and pipeline vandalism, wondering how effective they would be if merged with the police force.

“In Lagos State, we have the Security Trust Fund through which successive administrations starting from that of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu had provided enormous support to the police command in Lagos State. Yet, crime of different dimensions has continued.

“This shows that no matter what Egbetokun has proffered as a solution, such won’t solve our problem. The position of the IGP is unacceptable. We strongly believe that if we have state police, we would be able to solve the issues of crime in our nation or reduce it to the minimum.

“As we have seen in other climes, the United Kingdom has different levels of policing just like the United States of America. So why should ours be different? The lives of our people are very important and we must do everything possible to make sure we protect lives and property.

“We want to state categorically that we believe in state police and we want to urge the National Assembly to continue with its intendment to establish state police through the process of constitutional amendment,” Obasa said, praising President Bola Tinubu for his resolve to end insecurity in the country.