Kaduna — Former governor of Kaduna State, Alhaji Abdulkadir Balarabe Musa and president of the Civil Right Congress of Nigeria, Comrade Shehu Sani, yesterday said the establishment of state police as advocated by the Nigeria Governors Forum will not address the insecurity situation in the country.

The Nigeria Governors Forum rose from its meeting in Abuja calling for the establishment of state police as a panacea for the insecurity situation in the country.

Balarabe Musa in an interview said the governors are calling for the establishment of state police in order to use them for their selfish interests, not to tackle insecurity in the country.

"The governors are wrong, we cannot afford to have state police because they will use them to cause more harm than good. It is not advisable to have state police because there is no problem with the present police force," he said.

He urged the Federal Government to intensify efforts to address the challenges facing the police in the country.

Also speaking, president of the Civil Right Congress of Nigeria, Comrade Shehu Sani, said creating state police could cause secession and intimidation of opposition at the state level.

"State police will be as crude as state electoral commission and local government councils. State police will be peopled by party thugs and party dogs. It will simply be a readymade instrument for rigging elections and persecuting opposition by incumbent state governors. Governors advocating for state police will find themselves at the receiving end when they are out of office," he said.

Shehu Sani, while urging the Federal Government to ignore the governors, said, "security should be hinged on justice, development, economic empowerment and grassroots democracy, and not on multiplication of state apparatus".