Photo: Leadership

Police (file photo).

WORRIED by the level of insecurity in parts of the country caused by the Boko Haram sect, the 36 state governors under the aegis of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, NGF, have called for the establishment of state Police.

Rising from a meeting at the Rivers State Governor’s Lodge, Abuja, Monday, the governors who noted that state police was a strategy for combating the rising insecurity in the country, however, called on the Federal Government to establish a special intervention fund for state governments especially to states that are presently most affected.

In a communiqué signed by the NGF chairman and Governor of Rivers State, Rotimi Amaechi, the governors stressed that the intervention fund had become imperative against the backdrop that state governments were currently overstretched in funding security.

The communiqué read: “We, the governors of the 36 states of the Federal Republic of Nigeria at our meeting deliberated on a number of issues. The following resolutions were reached:

“Forum strongly condemned the current spate of insecurity and violence which has been drifting the nation towards anarchy and called for a multi-dimensional approach to security issues including enhanced coordination and collaboration among security forces, effective use of technology and intelligence, value re-orientation, employment generation and sincerity of purpose.

“Forum reiterated its commitment to convene a Governors’ Forum Conference on security in Nigeria.

“State governments are currently overstretched in funding security and called for a special intervention fund from the Federal Government, especially to the states that are most affected.

“Finally, the forum identified the increasing need for state police as a strategy for combating the rising insecurity in the country.”

Present at the meeting were governors of Rivers, Niger,  Bornu, Enugu, Sokoto, Delta, Taraba, Ekiti, Oyo, Kwara, Plateau, Zamfara, Kogi, Nasarawa, Kaduna, Abia and Anambra.

Also present were deputy governors of Ondo, Jigawa, Kano, Adamawa and Lagos states