State police will hurt our democracy – Ex-DG VON

The former Director-General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), Mr Osita Okechukwu, has stated that state police would hurt the nation’s nascent democracy.

Okechukwu, a foundation member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), disclosed this in Eke shortly after the burial of late Chief Bona Udeh, erstwhile Chairman of Udi Local Government Area in Enugu State.

The APC chieftain said that his lack of support for the establishment of state police was due to his elementary study of the antics of dictatorship.

He stated that the study made him shiver each time he thought of what would happen to democracy if governors,  who had since inception of the fourth republic in 1999 acted like emperors, are empowered absolutely to kill democracy.

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“What salvation do we earn, when careful consideration gazetted that majority of our dear governors are more or less akin to emperors, who are constantly in the breach of fine democratic tenets and civil liberties?” he asked.

The APC chieftain also said the governors had thwarted the local councils since the  system had blatantly mangled state judiciary and state legislatures into rubber stamps.

“My dear countrymen, do we in all intents and purposes make altruistic sense to further empower emperors? Emperors hated alternative views, abhorred popular participation and rule of law throughout the history of man.

“Our dear governors in similar manner abhorred the rule of law and popular participation; this is why they had, in the same bipartisan manner,opposed local government autonomy, independence of state judiciary and state legislatures,” he said.

Proffering security solution, Okechukwu said as a matter of urgent national importance, at this trying period, the country needed well-trained and well-equipped Special Constabulary Police in line with the Nigeria Police Act 2020.

The APC chieftain said Special Constabulary Police should be equipped with sophisticated arsenal to contain kidnappers, terrorists and insurgents at the grassroots, without authoritarian antics.

He said the Special Constabulary Police he was advocating would be funded by Federal and State Governments, jointly recruited from indigenes of the given state in collaboration with the governors, albeit local community, based on “tiny federal strings”, for necessary moderation. (NAN)