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State Policing Would Worsen Insecurity In Nigeria – Okey Ezea Declares

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The senatorial candidate of the Labour Party for the Enugu North senatorial district in the 2023 general election, Okey Ezea has said state policing if implemented would worsen the current situation of insecurity ravaging the country.

Ezea noted that the only way state policing can thrive is for the system not to be controlled by state governors.

According to him, insecurity will be worse than when it started if state policing remains in the hands of state governors.

Naija News gathered that while giving his reason, the Labour Party Enugu North candidate told Punch that it is glaring what state governments are doing with their various vigilante group, so one should now wonder what the situation would be with state policing in their care.

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Ezea’s stand rather contradicts what the agitations of people are about the issue of state police, as many people have pushed for it saying it would reduce the rate of insecurity in the country.

However, the Labour Party candidate feels otherwise and observed that “Insecurity in Nigeria has become an existential problem. There is insecurity everywhere in Nigeria, and it’s getting worse by the day. So, it requires a very serious legislative solution in terms of coming up with laws that allow the police to have better personnel and better equipment to discharge their duties.

“But when you bring in the state police, it is a different kettle of fish. It must not be allowed to be controlled by state governors.

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“Insecurity will be worse if state police remain in the hands of state governors. It will be worse than when we started. You can just see what the state governments are doing with the vigilantes. You see how people who are not trained and who know next to nothing about firearms are given automatic rifles.

“They recruit cultists into those vigilante groups, people whose greatest satisfaction is that they have their private arms and can kill. The issue of insecurity and state police needs critical analysis to find a middle course that satisfies the people’s yearnings.”

Naija News understands that, while speaking about facing the incumbent governor of Enugu State, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi as his opponent in the contest at the Enugu North senatorial district, Ezea said the result of the polls will not be determined by whether someone is an incumbent senator, or governor, or president, it would depend on the public’s acceptance of the candidacy of the person to determine the outcome.

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“So, if Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi feels he is very confident of his performance because we’re facing our people, who have given him the mandate he has had in his life, let us campaign and wait for election day to see who the people will vote for. It’s not all about sponsoring a legal battle against my candidacy.

“People will think it is intra-party; my opponent in this contest is Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, and he is afraid of meeting me in the field. That is the truth of the matter. Ifeanyi does not want to run in an election against me. He wants to push me away.

“Ifeanyi is now parcelling land in Enugu State and issuing certificates of occupancy to judicial officers in Abuja. Quote me. Otherwise, under the Freedom of Information Act, let him tell you about the parcel of land between the Nigerian Television Authority and the Institute of Management and Technology and who was assigned to it. His ministry of land is busy fencing some of those plots and parking the allocation papers with people we know. So, that is what is happening?” he added.