The Director-General of the Institute for Police and Security Policy Research (IPSPR), Charles Omole, has faulted claims that President Bola Tinubu’s push for state police is intended to influence the 2027 general election, describing the allegation as “not true” and “practically impossible”.
The bill, passed by the House and Senate, seeks to amend Section 214 to establish federal and state police services.
Omole, who was a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today, argued that no state would be able to establish a functional state police service before the next general election because of the constitutional, legal, and operational processes required.
“I do not see any state having state police before the next election, so those who are driving the fact that maybe the President is doing it so that he can use it for the next election, that can’t happen because the technicalities are just not there,” the lawyer said on Monday.
Rejecting suggestions that the proposal was designed to manipulate elections, Omole said, “It is not true. It is practically impossible to do it.
“If you are the President and, in quote, ‘you want to rig an election’, is it not easier for you to use one police force that you control? Why will you want to create 36 police services? It’s a more convoluted way to do it.”
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He suggested that President Tinubu’s objective may instead be to complete the legal framework for state policing before the end of his current term.
“I think what the President probably wants to do is finalise every legal framework so that when the next term starts, if he wins the election, it’s just straight to implementation. We are no longer doing any paperwork,” he said.
Omole called for a federal reform technical team to redesign policing, warning that replicating the Nigeria Police at the state level and ignoring operational complexities like jurisdiction and weapons could worsen security challenges.
While opposition figures, including Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar, have warned that the reform could be exploited for political purposes if rushed, the National Assembly has insisted the legislation is a response to Nigeria’s security challenges rather than a politically motivated initiative.
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