Oba Abdulrasheed Adewale Akanbi, the Oluwo of Iwo has implored President Muhammadu Buhari to make Nigeria a police state.
The monarch disclosed that such would entail President Buhari directing the recruitment of five million youths into the police to strengthen the country’s security architecture.
This was contained in a statement signed by Alli Ibraheem and made available to journalists in Osogbo on Sunday.
The traditional ruler, who expressed concern over the deteriorating state of the nation’s security, reminded President Buhari that as the Commander-In-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces, the step will also aid in tackling Nigeria’s rising insecurity.
He enjoined the administration to develop a digitalised data base and means of identification for Nigerians to enhance effective policing.
While admonishing the government to implement policies that will give more credence to the security architecture of Nigeria, the monarch advised that such moves should not be limited to recruitment of more personnel, but also better funding by way of increasing the monthly salary of security operatives.
“Nigeria with not less than 250 million population has a police strength of less than 300,000. To have a robust security output, President Muhammed Buhari should make Nigeria a policing State by recruiting 5 million personnel.
“In addition to that, the government must also improve our database and provide electronic gadgets that will assist the police to have access to individual information irrespective of the location.
“Operation carry your identification card must be enforced. With this, criminals and bandits will find it difficult to move around us.”