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The recent murders in Tse Yange, a Tiv-dominated town in Obi Local Government Area of Nasarawa State, and Yelewata, Guma Local Government Area of Benue State, by suspected armed herders have reignited the controversy surrounding state police.

In the Northeast, bandits and terrorists have persisted in their activities in spite of military interventions, while suspected herders are on the loose in Benue State, which is in the Middle Belt.

Banditry, cattle rustling, and farmer-herder conflicts have been the main causes of insecurity in Northern Nigeria, resulting in extensive displacement, bloodshed, and interruption of vital services.

Climate change, unemployment, and poverty are some of the factors that have made these problems worse.

The necessity of establishing state police in Nigeria has been hotly debated.

Speaking at a gathering in Abuja on Monday, President Bola Tinubu, accompanied by Defense Minister Mohammed Abubakar Badaru, stated that the creation of a state police is now a “national imperative” that is required due to the nation’s growing security threats.

“The debate over State Police is no longer theoretical. It is grounded in the daily fears and lived anxieties of Nigerians: farmers afraid to tend their fields, traders unsure of safe passage, and communities abandoned to self-help,” Tinubu said.

Tinubu advocated for bold constitutional revisions that would move policing from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent List, enabling states with competence and political desire to build their own police forces.

Special Police Constabulary Units solution to insecurity – Osita Okechukwu

In order to combat insecurity, Osita Okechukwu, a founding member of the All Progressives Congress (APC), suggested creating the Special Police Constabulary Unit (SPCU) as a component of the community police system.

Okechukwu also cautioned the Federal government to provide funding for the SPCU, if it is constituted, pointing out that it is included in Sections 105–109 of the Nigeria Police Act 2020.

The former Director General of Voice of Nigeria, VON, said in an interview with ZINGTIE: “I sincerely propose the convocation of the Special Police Constabulary Unit (SPCU), given the palpable insecurity and the lukewarm attitude of the governors to establish State Police.

“Luckily, the Special Police Constabulary Unit (SPCU), is expressly stated in Sections 105 -109 of the Nigeria Police Act 2020.

“My recommendation is that the SPCU should be well equipped with a sophisticated arsenal to contain kidnappers, terrorists and insurgents at the grassroots, without authoritarian antics.

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“Also the Special Constabulary Police Units nationwide should be funded by Federal and State Governments, jointly recruited from indigenes of the given state in collaboration with the governors and large input from the local community vigilantes.

“SPCU should be strewn with scant Federal strings if possibly funded directly from the Federal Account Allocation Commission (FAAC), with specific deductions from Federal, State and Local Governments allocations. This will provide efficiency and necessary moderation, so that the Governors are not rendered helpless.

“My proposal is consequent upon a worrisome alarm that a few months ago we jubilated when the National Economic Council (NEC) informed Nigerians that the majority of the 36 State Governors had in bipartisan manner endorsed the establishment of State Police.

“Albeit we have not heard from the same National Executive Council (NEC) since the April 24, 2025 meeting to date, thus exhibiting a nonchalance mindset to such urgent national security policy.

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“Their communique after the meeting was a tepid statement, ‘For your information, state police was part of our agenda today, unfortunately because of time demands after a very long meeting. You know we have been here for a very long time, because of the presentations, we were unable to get to that,’ His Excellency, Bayelsa State Governor Douye Diri submitted.

“Now with over 200 brothers and sisters of ours killed in Yelwata, is the above statement not alarming that despite the gruesome insecurity in our dear country, the National Economic Council has on the issue of State Police gone on voicemail?

“My dear countrymen, now that our Emperor Governors are hesitant to convoke State Police, do we in all intents and purposes make altruistic sense to beg them.

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“In good conscience can we put our dear Governors in control of arms, when we know that they hate alternative views, most illiberal, and have scant regard to the rule of law doctrine?

“Therefore, Special Police Constabulary is the answer and will perform similar functions if not better, because they will be better jointly funded.”

Amotekun: Peter Obi’s former adviser says state police will stop Fulani militia and insecurity

Katchy Ononuju, the former Special Advisor on Public Affairs to former Anambra State Governor Peter Obi, urged the government to enact legislation that would allow for state policing.

Ononuju claimed that if state police were established, Fulani militia assaults and overall insecurity in the nation would be reduced.

He said to ZINGTIE: “We already have state police.

“Forest Guard is something similar to state policing, but it’s one thing to make mention of an initiative and it’s another thing to carry it out. There is a very powerful lobby working for the government’s non-action against the militia actions used to perpetrate industrial scale ethnic cleansing by Fulani militias.

“Now, there is a complexity when there is a resemblance of a failure of intelligence, the intelligence gathering apparatus of the country should know what’s going on.

“Why should the presidency of the country be referring to the issue as communal clashes? It tells you of government complicity in the ethnic cleansing for lands.

“We have enough intelligence but the absence of political will as they unbundle that intelligence makes the government look very complicit. It’s very inhuman and insensitive to speak about communal clashes in a state of 98 percent Christian population and these Fulani militias are killing them for land. They love the lands because it has water and grass – this is the action of Fulani militias bent on creating neo-colonialism across the Middle belt.

“The Southeast must now understand that should the Benue Basin fail, the region will now be vulnerable to Fulani militia attacks and Igbos know that. It’s not only people of the Benue Basin that are aggrieved, the east is also at risk, should the Benue Basin fail, the east will now be vulnerable to Fulani militia attacks.

“Yes, state policing can curb these attacks, Amotekun was formed with the laws that enabled it, those laws enabled Amotekun to perform as a legally registered organization.

“Amotekun even carry guns; all you need is that enabling law to allow the state create their own uniformed groups named community police or anything you want and I believe that is the right way to go in the face of government’s failure to provide protection for life and properties, people may be forced to resort to self-help which will bring mayhem.”

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