A chieftain of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Buba Galadima, has accused President Bola Tinubu and state governors of pushing for the creation of state police to use it for political purposes ahead of the 2027 general elections.
Naijaonpoint reports that Galadima made the allegation on Tuesday during an appearance on Arise Television’s Morning Show.
He questioned the argument that state police would address the country’s security challenges.
“Nobody ever conceived the idea of state police to sort out our security challenge. If the Nigerian Police and the Nigerian military can’t solve the security situation in the country, I wonder how the state police would be able to do that,” he said.
Galadima alleged that the proposed state police could be deployed to intimidate political opponents during elections.
“All that we know is that the President and governors are looking for state police before the election so that they use them as political thugs to attack the opposition, disarm the election, and kill democracy,” he said.
The NDC chieftain recalled the activities of the defunct Native Authority Police, warning against a repeat of history.
“I was adult enough to see what happened during the Native Authority Police. When elections approached, three months to election, the Native Authority Police would gather all opposition elements in their territorial jurisdiction and lock them up.
“Some of them will say you have abused the emir or judge, or you are wearing shoes when your village head was seated on the chair, then they would send all of them into detention,” he said.
Galadima further argued that state police could threaten national unity if dominated by a single ethnic or religious group in some states.
“The state police can be used to destroy the unity of this country because there are certain states where only one tribe or religion would constitute the state police such that other people from other parts of the country would have no liberty to do their business as enshrined by the Constitution.
“The state police, for me, would create more problems and divisions,” he added.
