BY GABRIEL ENOGHOLASE

BENIN – DEPUTY Speaker of the Edo State Assembly, Mr. Festus Ebea, has called for the amendment of the Constitution to provide for State Police, insisting that the growing  insecurity to lives and property in the country would be greatly addressed if State Police was established.

Ebea who spoke with newsmen in Benin, weekend, said: “I support the creation of state police. Local, state or community policing is one of the way we can check the many security problems in the country.”

He said: “When men and officers of the Police drawn from the immediate communities, policing would be made easy. You cannot secure a place you do not know the topography. So when you create state police, you will know what is happening within your immediate environment.

“This is because, the criminals we are talking about don’t live in isolation. If they are operating in a state, they live somewhere within the state and they live among human beings. If you have people who are vast in an area in question doing investigations, they will be able to give adequate information.

“The issue of security has  gone beyond what the state governor can handle. Though the constitution says he is the Chief Security Officer of the state, he does not have control of the security apparatus. What do I mean? The state Commissioner of Police takes directives from Abuja, from the Inspector General of Police or the National Security Adviser or the President as the case may be.

He explained that with the establishment of state police, the governor will be the Chief Security Officer of his state on paper and in word, actions and deeds, adding that in Edo “in as much as the governor has been trying to provide equipment to aid security agencies, much is not being achieved and no state can be blamed for it. The issue of security constitutionally is in the hands of the Federal Government.”