The former Commissioner of Police in Lagos State, AIG Edgar Imohimi (retd.), during an interview with The Punch, spoke on the decision of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and state governors to consider the creation of state police.
When he was asked if he thinks the creation of state police is long overdue in Nigeria, Edgar said that it is long overdue. And that when he was interviewed by newsmen two years ago, he stated it very clearly to them that Nigeria needs State Police.
Edgar Imohimi claimed that even at that time, the security situation in the country was not this bad, and that the federal structure of police was no longer adequate, and Nigeria needs the state police to deal with some of the challenges we are facing right now.
He said,
“When I was commissioner of police in Lagos, we had an issue and I took it to the traditional institution in Ikorodu. I partnered with the monarchs and we eventually got a solution to the problem.”
Further talking, he said other security agencies also joined him in the fight against those heinous crimes then. Edgar alleged that policing is a local issue and not a federal issue.
He said, “If you have state police, the leaders in that state will look inward on how to generate money to fund that police and they will make use of local intelligence to solve security challenges.”