President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, on Thursday said the National Assembly would support efforts to create state police as part of measures to strengthen security across the country.
Akpabio stated this to newsmen after leading a delegation of principal officers of the Senate on a traditional Eid-el-Kabir homage to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at his Lagos residence.
The Senate President said the federal lawmakers were prepared to work with the President to develop a framework that would enable states to participate more actively in securing lives and property.
According to him, discussions were ongoing on how to establish “a positive and not a negative state police.”
“But we believe that working with him, the National Assembly can come up with a solution, a framework that will enable the states to also partake in securing the lives and properties of the citizens and that is in the area of the state police,” Akpabio said.
“And we are looking at ways of creating a positive and not a negative state police and something that can have a national state police commission that will regulate the conduct of state policing and also promotion, training and all.”
He said the proposed framework would also ensure proper regulation, training and promotion within state policing structures.
Akpabio acknowledged that insecurity remained a major challenge in parts of the country but noted that the security situation had improved under the current administration.
“We can’t do it alone. National Assembly will assist him to ensure that we improve on the area of security. But it has actually improved,” he stated.
The Senate President said organised bomb attacks and the open display of insurgent flags in parts of the country had significantly reduced.
“There is no part of Nigeria today that you have the flag of any insurgents, whether Boko Haram, being hoisted. And then all those organized bomb blasts everywhere have been brought to an end,” he said.
He, however, noted that insurgents now attack “soft targets” such as schools, churches and mosques.
“What we see now are insurgents going to areas of soft targets, going to schools, going to churches, going to mosques and those areas that nobody would think security agents would be there,” Akpabio added.
He said the National Assembly would continue to support the administration in improving security architecture across the country.
Akpabio also disclosed that lawmakers were considering an increase in funding for the Police Trust Fund from 0.5 per cent to one per cent of revenue from the production account.
“That will be for police infrastructure and equipment. Of course the states will also add their own,” he said.
The Senate President praised Tinubu’s economic reforms, saying they had helped reposition Nigeria’s economy and ended distortions inherited by the administration in 2023.
According to him, the administration met multiple exchange rates, unsustainable subsidies and excessive government spending financed through borrowing and money printing.
“He has stopped all that. We met multiple exchange rates. He has stopped all that. We met a situation of false subsidies. He has stopped all that,” Akpabio said.
He also commended the administration for ending fuel queues and harmonising taxes across the country.
