A former deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu says the much talked about community policy is a fraud.
Ekweremadu who was featured on a Channels TV programme on Friday also described Community Policy as a total distraction to the reality.
The former Senate President represented Enugu West Senatorial District.
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It could be recalled that the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Mohammed Adamu has joined the call for community policing, saying it will help address insecurity at the grassroots.
Community policing was also approved in 2019 by President Muhammadu Buhari as a measure to address insecurity.
However, Ekweremadu argued that due to the “so many diversities” in Nigeria, such a strategy will not work.
He opined that Nigerians are living in denial, adding that the security problem in the country is at its worse state because it’s not been dealt with.
“Nigeria lives as a federal state. We accepted before independence that what is suitable for our circumstance is federalism. Since we accepted federalism, we need to look at others practising federalism,” he said.
“In those other places, the way they deal with security is to decentralise it. The idea of forming a federal system of government is that you have accepted that you have so many diversities.
“To respect those diversities, you have to come into a loose arrangement to do things in a way that is peculiar to the people.
“Community policing is a fraud, it is a total distraction. What they are telling us is that there is a problem between the community and the police itself and they need to address that lack of trust and confidence. That’s what community policing is all about.
“If you have a federal system, you have a complete architecture that can deal with situations in a complex manner.”
He said contrary to what most Nigerians think the police is planning through community policing, the police IG told the senate, “they are going to get volunteers who will be giving police information, find out what their challenges are, why do they not trust the police, to build their confidence”.
“Unfortunately, the federal police we have now is not working. That’s why they (south-west) came together to say let us have a security outfit to deal with our problems,” Ekweremadu said.
“Amotekun is different from what the federal government is saying about community policing. They have personnel who are going to deal with issues unlike what the federal government is proposing.”
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