State Police: Politicians Must Not Recruit Officers, Procure Arms — Aondoakaa

A former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Michael Aondoakaa, has called for federal legislation to regulate the recruitment of personnel and procurement of arms for state police formations.

Aondoakaa said the proposed legal framework was necessary to prevent politicians from using state police to promote their interests by recruiting loyalists and procuring firearms without adequate oversight.

He spoke on during an interview on Arise TV while commenting on the proposed establishment of state police in Nigeria.

The former minister said the federal government must establish clear rules governing the operation of state police, particularly the recruitment of personnel, to ensure that political actors do not determine who becomes a police officer.

“If the federal government does create a law regulating state police, even if they enact it, it will be inoperative. There are key areas I would like to observe that must be taken care of: the issue of recruitment, to avoid politicians bringing touts to become state police officers,” Aondoakaa said.

He stressed that the recruitment process must be transparent and based on established standards to prevent politicians from introducing unqualified individuals into state police formations.

“And that should be handled in a manner that politicians are not allowed to come in and bring people who are not worthy to be police officers,” the former minister said.

Aondoakaa also opposed allowing individual state governments to independently procure firearms, ammunition and other security equipment for their police formations.

He argued that arms procurement for state police should be centrally monitored, preferably through the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA), to ensure that authorities can track the type and quantity of weapons supplied to each state.

“The second issue is the issue of procurement of ammunition; you cannot allow 36 states and the FCT to go buy equipment directly from the international market to arm their policemen,” he said.

“There should be a level of control, and the requirement for procurement of equipment and paramilitary equipment should be controlled, possibly subject to the legal framework, [and] should be through the national security adviser.”

According to him, central monitoring would allow the authorities to maintain accurate records of weapons and other security equipment deployed to state police formations across the country.

“So that we can know which type of arms went to which state. If the entire 36 states go to the market and import arms for their state police, there would be a lot of confusion,” he added.

The former attorney-general said concerns over possible abuses should not be allowed to derail efforts to reform Nigeria’s policing system.

He stressed the need for cooperation between the federal and state governments in developing a comprehensive legal framework that would guide the establishment and operations of state police.

Aondoakaa also advocated granting magistrates the status of judicial officers to provide independent oversight of state police activities, particularly in rural communities.