By Nnamdi Ojiego

The powers vested on governors to appoint commissioners of police, CPs, in their states by the proposed bill on state police have been greeted by mixed feelings by civil society organizations, CSOs.

The members of the CSOs believed that allowing governors to appoint CPs would be counterproductive as it would lead to abuse.

The House of Representatives had, on February 20, passed, for a second reading, a bill seeking to establish state police.
The bill, sponsored by Benjamin Kalu, deputy speaker of the House, and 13 other lawmakers, was in response to the growing call for the establishment of state police due to the deteriorating security situation in the country.

The legislation proposes to transfer the term ‘police’ in the 1999 Constitution from the exclusive legislative list to the concurrent legislative list.

The bill, which comprises 18 clauses, seeks to amend sections 34, 35, 39, 42, 84, 89, 129, 153, 197, 214, 215 and 216 of the Constitution.

Section 215 (4) of the proposed legislation states that “state police shall be headed by a commissioner of police who shall be appointed by the governor of the state on the advice of the Federal Police Service Commission from among serving members of the state police subject to confirmation by the state house of assembly”.

Subsection 5 adds that “the governor or such other commissioner of the government of the state as he may authorise on his behalf may give to the commissioner of police such lawful directions with respect to the maintenance and securing of public safety and order as he may consider necessary, and the commissioner of Police shall comply with those directions or cause them to be complied with.

“However, in a situation whereby the commissioner of police believes that a directive given to him is unlawful or contradicts general policing standards or practice, he may request that the matter be referred to the State Police Service Commission for review and the decision shall be final.”

Reacting, the Executive Director, Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre, RULAAC, Okechukwu Nwanguma, rejected any form of political involvement as it concerns state police.

Undue Control

According to him, “The best practice is that every police department should be insulated from political control. Political control means that they are subject to manipulation by the state governors. That is not what is expected to be, that’s not what we want. The police ought to be independent of politics.”

On the power of the governor to appoint CP, Nwanguma explained that such powers should not be absolute. “The governor can appoint, but that power to appoint should not be an absolute power. For example, the person to be appointed the commissioner has to go through some scrutiny, and maybe, some nominations of, like three or four persons. They are screened, and then the best candidate is recommended for the governor to appoint.

“Again, the governor cannot single-handedly remove the commissioner except with the support from at least a third majority of the state House of Assembly. That way, you provide some safeguard against undue control and manipulation of the police by the state governor. The idea is that some mechanism must be put in place to protect whoever will be the commissioner of police in the states from being under the absolute control of the governor and to check undue political influence and control.”

Also, the Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, CISLAC, Auwal Rafsanjani, said denying governors sweeping powers over state police makes no difference as he who appoints would always control.

He said: “It makes no difference between appointing and controlling. It is very clear that people hardly stick to the principle, they will want to give loyalty and take instructions from those that appoint them. What we need is a very fundamental constitutional discussion about state policing.

“Policing is not just about creating an agency. It is about keeping the policing work and meeting the challenges of safety and security. if you create the state police, in my opinion, it’s going to be one of those agencies that is going to be treated with laxity by state governments.

“I tell you, security requires training and retraining. It requires modern facilities. If you surrender the police structure to the state governors, I tell you after one or two years, they cannot even pay their salary. Is that what we are going to do with the state police if you have them?”

Speaking in the same vein, Femi Adeyeye, National Publicity Secretary of African Action Congress, AAC, opined that the citizens do not want a police system controlled by the politicians.

According to him, the position of the police is very important to be left in the hands of the governors. “We don’t want police that politicians control. That is the problem. We want the police officers that will obey the law regardless of who is being affected.”

Adeyeye suggested that a police commission should be in charge of appointing commissioners of police, and there should not be any political undertone in the way officers are promoted.

He said: “It will not augur well to allow governors to appoint CPs because they will be choosing someone that would be loyal to them, someone that will help them during elections, someone that will help them protect his kids. No, that is not how the police system should work.

“The Police Commission, who knows the experience of all the officers, and who knows how many years they have worked, who knows their rank, should promote them to the position that they are supposed to be.

“Again, we need to go beyond state police to local and community policing so that you will know those protecting you. They will know you too and the community and the state will be safe.”