The Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) has revealed why the governors failed to reach a consensus on the creation of state police during a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja.
After the meeting with President Buhari and Security heads at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, the chairman of the NGF, Kayode Fayemi told newsmen that while there are states in support of the creation of state police, some has opposed it because of economic realities on ground.
The NGF chairman nonetheless, said that the matter would be further looked into by the National Economic Council (NEC), which Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo chairs. Fayemi said:
“On whether state governors should be involved in state policing, the position of NGF on that is that we have not taken position because experiences vary. There are governors and states that do not necessarily lend themselves to evolve policing at the states.
“There are also states where there are agitations for it. There are governors who have the views that that will work better in such states. And of course, there are the economic issues relating to that.
“So, we have the issue of capacity at the state level to fund state policing. Those are all issues that will come into play when we get to the National Economic Council meeting that has been called, particularly, because there is a committee that is looking into it after the submission of the report on SARS. So, we will take all of these together.”