The Deputy President of the Nigerian Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, says the immediate review of the nation’s policing system has become imperative to tame the menace of insecurity in the country.
He made the call at the weekend in a chat with newsmen when he visited the National Hospital, Abuja to condole with hospitalized victims of the Nyanya, Abuja bomb incident.
Senator Ekweremadu, who was accompanied by his wife, Nwanneka Ekwereamdu, rued the rising disregard for human life and insisted that only a multilevel policing could secure the country adequately.
He said: “I was out of the country for an official visit at the time of the incident and I feel completely dehumanized that a country that values human life more than anything else is going through this kind of bestiality; so, it is completely unacceptable and we must come together as a nation and borrow from our past and relevant examples in the world to fight this evil and put it behind us.
“We are the only country that runs a federal system and run the type of police we have now. The type of police system we are running is not suited for a federal system of government. We are about 170 million people; we cannot have 320 thousand policemen to deal with it and I don’t believe that the Federal Government can ever produce the number of police that will be enough for this country.
“So, it is important that we review our policies and our laws in respect of this and see how we can incorporate other levels of government in security matters in this country so that at least in every vicinity, in every local area, we have sufficient of policemen around there who would not only police the place but also report to higher authorities on what is happening there.”
“If you have malaria, so long as you keep taking Panadol, you will never be well; it’s not going to work, because you need malaria drugs in order to deal with malaria; that is the problem we have here”, he stressed.
Senator Ekweremadu gave assurance that the National Assembly would continue to live up to its responsibilities in repositioning the security sector, emphasising that the nation’s security sector needed all the encouragement and support to give the nation their best.
“Our responsibility in this regard as lawmakers is essentially budgetary and we have appropriated nearly one trillion (Naira) in the budget to deal with security challenges; this year we made a specific provision for Police to hire more hands”, he explained.
The Deputy President of the Senate commended the National Hospital for the professionalism and patriotism with which they handled the victims. He gave personal financial support to the hospitalized and thanked God for their survival, while also wishing them quick recovery.
