Former 2019 Presidential Aspirant Okey Samuel Mbonu has thrown support to the concept of “community policing” as enunciated by the Southwest Governors, via the Amotekun project.
Mbonu in a statement released from his current base in Washington DC, United States; stated that community policing is an inevitable aspect of true federalism which Nigeria purports to practice.
He further explained that community policing in the US arose from the 2nd Amendment of the US Constitution, which gave all citizens the right to bear arms, for the security and defence of their local communities, against unbridled attacks and potential terror.
Mbonu stated that since the numeric strength of the Nigerian Police Force (NPF), is only 350,000 for a population of 200 million, that it is not rocket science that there’s an array of criminal elements, having a field day all over Nigeria, with rampant kidnapping, robbery, and banditry ravaging both north and south Nigeria. It is also an open secret that more than half the NPF are busy guarding politicians, their wives, and their children, thus making the rest of the population vulnerable with one police personnel per 3000 to 5000 persons.
Mbonu stated that the FG should be congratulating the Southwest Governors, and encouraging the Southeast, South-south, and Middle-belt governors to form their own Community Policing units to augment the NPF, just like the Hisbah Police, and the Civilian JTF.
Mbonu also asked Nigeria’s Attorney General to understudy the US Federalism that Nigeria adopted, where Policing is strictly a state and local government affair, with every one of the 4000 counties (local government area) in the US, having its own police, along with City Police Departments for the various cities across the US.
Further, Mbonu said that the US Federal government technically does not have a “domestic” police force, because policing is a state affair, and the US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) which is not a “uniformed” service, is only there, to aid in investigation of major interstate crimes, at the request of state officials, or due to some other serious issues. In any case, the FBI would work closely with state police when invited to each of the 50 US states.
He stated that Amotekun would protect all citizens in their particular domain, whether they are Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, Ijaw or Efik, and urged the FG to retrace her steps, and embrace dialogue with the states, to work toward a common purpose of securing Nigeria domestically. Once the nation is secure domestically, the national military will then truly focus on the self-professed enemies of the country.