The presidency has expressed disappointment with the comments made by former Anambra State Governor, Peter Obi, over the ongoing plans by the Bola Tinubu administration to establish State Police structure in Nigeria.
Naijaonpoint recalls that Obi had, in a statement on Friday, commended the passage of the State Police Bill by the National Assembly but expressed concern about a disorderly legislative process and the potential for political abuse.
Obi, in a statement titled ‘State Police: Commendable Step, but Disorderly Legislation Raises Concerns of Political Misuse’, asserted that Nigerians had long advocated the decentralisation of policing.
Peter Obi, however, pointed out that the speed at which the legislation was enacted, without wider consultation, had fuelled suspicions about the political motives behind the move.
According to the 2027 presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), the major concern surrounding state police was not logistics but the possibility of political manipulation by state governors.
Peter Obi also argued that for state policing to evolve from a risky political gamble into a genuine security solution.
However, in a swift reaction, the Special Assistant to President Tinubu on Social Media, Dada Olusegun, described the submissions by Obi as tragic.
He added that it would have been better for the former Labour Party presidential candidate to keep quiet.
“This is just very tragic tbh. It would have been better to keep quiet Peter,” Olusegun wrote on 𝕏.
