Citizens United for the Rehabilitation of Errants (CURE-Nigeria), a human rights and justice reform NGO, has called for the creation of state police and prisons in the country.
Mr Sylvester Uhaa, the Executive Director of the organisation made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja.
He said the call was in support of the recommendation of the All Progressives Congress (APC) panel on restructuring led by Gov. Ahmed El-Rufai of Kaduna State on devolution of powers to states.
Uhaa said the creation of state police and prisons would help to strengthen the security situation of the country, particularly now that the country was undergoing security threats.
"We support state police because we believe it will lead to better performance of the police and to a more accountable, lawful and responsible force, to increase security and protection of lives and property.
"Experiences from the recent events around the country point to the reality that the current federal police is deficient and incapable of maintaining law and order and guarantee the protection of lives and property in Nigeria,” he said.
According to him, the situation is similar with that of the prisons since the majority of the prison inmates in states are indigenes of those states.
The executive director said state governments had shown little or no interest in the prison reforms which had resulted to the deteriorating conditions of prisons in the country.