Chairman of the South West Governors Forum, Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, has doubled down on his position that more power must be devolved to the federating unit in order to be able to better secure the country.
Speaking over the weekend, Akeredolu said that the success of the regional security outfit codenamed Amotekun shows that Nigeria’s security architecture must be decentralised.
Governor Akeredolu noted that the country’s security architecture decentralization “is for effective security of lives and properties in Nigeria.”
The governor said this while receiving participants of the Senior Course 45 programme of the Armed Forces Command and Staff College, Jaji, Kaduna State, on a study tour of the state.
The 46-man team was led by the Faculty Leader, Commodore Promise Dappa.
While reiterating the need for state police, the governor said: “The stand of his administration is that a police command in Abuja cannot serve the nation of 300 million people.
“Despite our meagre resources, our administration has recorded remarkable successes in securing the lives and property of the people of the state as well as in the area of employment generation.
“The state-owned security agency, the Amotekun Corps, has also been doing wonderfully well.
“The success of Amotekun Corps in Ondo State in particular and South West of Nigeria, in general, underscores the fact that the security architecture of the country must be decentralized for effective security of lives and properties in Nigeria.”
Earlier, the Faculty Team Leader, Commodore Promise Dappa, explained that the purpose of the study tour was for the participants to visit selected states every year to study the prevalent socio-cultural, socio-economic and security challenges in those states.