The immediate past senator representing Adamawa central Senatorial zone at the 8th senate, Sen. Abdulaziz Murtala Nyako has disclosed that the fear of abuse of the police by governors made the 8th senate to refuse to remove policing from the exclusive legislative list.
Nyako who made the remark when candidates who contested various political offices under the auspices of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) organized a get together to honour him, said, he was personally not averse to the idea of divulging policing powers to the state as is the case with the U.S.
Nyako who was responding to a question on the newly created security outfit code named Amotekun by governors of the Southwest said: “Amotekun is a new concept, some people are uncomfortable with it, but my own understanding of it is that it is a security outfit.
“When we were in the senate, they had wanted us to remove policing from the exclusive legislative list.
” We did not, not because some places do not require policing that ought to be done locally where you divulge some powers of policing for instance for civil offenses,” said he.
Nyako noted that the major fear behind their refusal is that unpopular governors may use state police at their disposal to hoist a reign of terror especially during elections.
“I’m a firm supporter of such arrangement. But the overriding reason why we refused to do that was because of abuse.
” We have seen governors going to the extent of organising raids on the people when it is time for politicking.
“If you have a police force under their full command, how do you manage the situation. These are the issues and if they can be addressed and guaranteed and so on, you can remove it from the exclusive legislative list and divulge some powers of policing,” he said.
He noted that Amotekun should derive its legitimacy from the constitution for it to gain the necessary leverage and recognition.
“They have it in the US, you have the FBI playing a role and you have the other agencies playing their role. You have to define it.
” You don’t just create something without recourse to the constitution,” he said.
