Okiro: Governors Who Owe Workers Can’t Fund State Police, Says They Are Dictators

•Advocates Canadian system 

•Wants Senate to confirm tenure, dismissal of Inspectors-General of Police

Chuks Okocha in Abuja

Former Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mike Okiro, shared his opinion on multi-level policing, saying governors, who owe works would be unable to fund state police.

Okiro said some governors behaved like dictators and would use state police to their advantage against perceived political opponents.

He canvassed the Canadian police system.

Okoro, who spoke during an exclusive interview with THISDAY, advocated a system where the Inspector-General of Police could be removed from office by a two-third majority of the senate. He said such would help the police to resist pressure from politicians.

The former police boss stated, “It is absurd for governors who cannot pay civil servants’ salaries in their states to be advocating state police, who they cannot pay.  Owing salaries to policemen is a security risk. I am against state police, because it is equivalent to what happened in the southwest, operation wetie.

“What I am trying to advocate is a policing system, where you have regional cooperation. Make it in such a way that the police officers are from that area.

“You can post someone from Enugu to Ebonyi or from Ebonyi to Anambra, that is transfers within the zone. This is because almost every crime is local. You post policemen where they understand the languages and culture.

“Why I say so is because, once they know the culture of the people, they can better police the area. Secondly, the idea is that they are not far from their states of origin and so it becomes easier to operate, but it is still the federal government that is responsible for their salaries.”

Some security experts had asked Okiro how his in-between solution model could come into operation without constitutional amendment.

In answering the question, he explained that the federal government did not amend the constitution in creating the offices of Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG) and Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG).

He said, the police simply created the offices, arguing that in trying to make police operation efficient, any invention introduced automatically had the backing of law, as it would enhance the security of lives and property.

On the funding of regional policing under the federal police architecture, Okiro advocated that the office of the IGP should make funds available to heads of regional police to run their respective regions.

“Each zone in the country will be headed by either DIG or AIG, and they should have financial autonomy to achieve the desired result,” he said.