To tackle the rising spate of kidnapping and other security challenges in the country, the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) has added its voice to other groups calling for the establishment of state police.
Responding to questions from newsmen at the end of its joint National Advisory Council/National Executive Council meeting in Lagos on Thursday, the body noted that Nigerians are seriously facing security challenges in the country and called on President Bola Tinubu to assent to the establishment of state police.
Speaking through its President, Bishop Francis Wale Oke, the body said one way to deal with the current situation is to establish state police because the Nigeria Police Force is not only overstretched, but also over centralised.
Oke said: “PFN is urgently calling for the establishment of state police because the Nigeria Police Force is overstretched, our security apparatus is over centralised and therefore, state police will provide an answer.
The question to ask today is how capable are our present security forces in handling our present predicament?
How many do we have and how many are directly involved in handling security situation of the country? We think that the issue of state police has to do with this matter. We believe that we don’t have enough manpower to handle the level of manpower that is needed for security situation in the country.
Just look around the country, you will find out that there is hardly any state where security forces are not been sent to quell one crisis or the other. We believe that our security agencies are doing very well and are committed, but they are overstretched and one of the ways to deal with that is to add more people on ground and one of the ways to add to the number to make it effective to handle the situation is to approve the state police matter.
“If we can have state police approved we will have more hands to handle the challenges; not just more hands, but also more people who know their terrain and could identify where, what is and how to enter the place. Somebody live in Lagos and you send him to Bayelsa or Sokoto to go and handle security situation, he may not be as effective, no matter the weapons he has with him than somebody from that locality. He may not be effective enough to be able to penetrate certain places because the war we have in our hands now is not conventional.”
Urging the president to declare state of emergency on insecurity in Nigeria, Oke said he should use his executive power as the Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces to crush insecurity and create a safe Nigeria that is peaceful where all can live.
“We are living at a very dangerous time because there are many challenges facing Nigerians. With the serious security challenge threatening our future and coexistence and causing terrible economic challenges that have made things to be predictable, prices of goods escalating everyday, we appeal to all Nigerians to put heads together to find a common solution to the issues at hand. President Bola Tinubu cannot solve the problems alone; he cannot even do any thing without our cooperation.
We need to cooperate with him, bury our hatchet, forget our political differences and the wounds we suffered in the last electioneering campaign and build united Nigeria, knowing that we have no other nation that we can call ours. Having said that, we want to urge Mr. President to be president indeed, you are seasoned politician you know Nigeria like a man knows the back of his hands. Nigerians are in pain, blood of innocent people are flowing everywhere in Plateau, Benue, Kaduna, and Ekiti states.
Mr. President please declare state of emergency on insecurity in Nigeria and use your executive power as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces to crush insecurity and create a safe Nigeria that is peaceful where all of use can live in.”
On the group of people that issued a threat, the National President of PFN urged President Tinubu to go after them, even as he described them as criminals.
He said: “We even learnt that a group of people have issued a threat that is circulating on the social media platforms all over the place threatening that because elections did not go their own way and because the person who emerged as President is not doing their bidding they are going to make Nigeria an ungovernable place; that is illegal, the people that are issuing such threats are criminals, they should not be treated with kids gloves. The President should put his foot down and crush this rebellious group. It is rebellion against the people of Nigeria and against Mr. President.”
Assuring President Tinubu of PFN’s support and prayers, Oke said: “I want to assure you of the full cooperation of the PFN, the over 65 million Pentecostals in the country will cooperate with you, pray for you, give you advice and necessary information that will make you a success in dealing with the various insecurity challenges.”
On food insecurity, the cleric stated that Nigerians are hungry and that prices of food commodities are escalating every day. According to him, “What Nigerians earn is not even sufficient to fuel their cars or generators much less food. Nigerians are in pains, fuel subsidy has been removed, and the prices of petroleum products have gone up as well as food prices.
“So, Mr. President, we need you to work on the economic problems of Nigeria and provide solutions urgently. We are praying for you, we will give you counsel, if you need anything from us just tell us and we will be there because we want to join hands with you to build a peaceful, secure, prosperous Nigeria where people will not be hungry. We believe Nigerians have no problem with hunger; Nigerians have no problem with poverty if things are done well.
“Mr. President this is your time, write your name in the annals of Nigerian history and deal with food insecurity, deal with insecurity; deal with all the challenges that Nigeria are facing. If you do this, future generations of Nigeria will call you blessed.”
