By Oladele Ogunsola
As the clamour for creation of State Police gains momentum, the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) has disclosed that the creation won’t affect the operations of the Western Nigeria Security Network (WNSN) code- named Amotekun in the six states of the South- Western Nigeria.
This disclosure was made by the Director-General of the DAWN Commission, Dr. Seye Oyeleye at a roundtable session titled “Foundational Imperatives for State Police in South West Nigeria” held at the DAWN Commission headquarters in Cocoa House, Dugbe, Ibadan.
Oyeleye, who explained that the session was convened in response to the growing momentum at the federal level for the establishment of state police assured that Amotekun and state police could coexist within the region’s security architecture.
At the roundtable, where stakeholders and security experts deliberated on the need to develop an operational framework for the proposed state policing system, concerns about the potential abuse of state police by governors were addressed with Oyeleye dismissing such fears as outdated, citing the experience of Amotekun.
He said, “the fear that it will be abused is no longer tenable. We have had Amotekun operating since 2020 in South West Nigeria, and no one can say a governor has abused it. We are now in a social media age, the slightest thing, everybody knows” .
The DAWN DG equally waived aside the possibility of rivalry between state police and Amotekun, stressing that “having Amotekun and state police, they are not mutually exclusive. They can exist side by side; it is up to the governors. They may even decide that Amotekun will serve as forest rangers”.
He further explained that “the commission plans to leverage the establishment of state police to tackle kidnapping, banditry, and other criminal activities in the region”, advising that “although a national framework for state policing may be developed, regional peculiarities must be considered to ensure effectiveness.
“The creation of state police will happen. The bill is already at the National Assembly. In the South West, we have decided not to wait until state police is established before developing a template—a common framework on how it can operate efficiently in the region”, Oyeleye added.
Advising against what the DG called a one-size-fits-all approach, he said “there will be a common template, but there are individual peculiarities. That is why we are a federation. The mistake we do not want to make again is the ‘one size fits all’ approach”.
DAWN DG expressed optimism that by the first quarter of 2027, state police would become a reality, adding, “we believe state policing could become operational by early 2027 and that is why we are doing this now”.
In his contribution, Prof. Olawale Albert of African History, Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Ibadan emphasized the need to focus on implementation, rather than debate.
According to him, “we cannot jump into state policing without interrogating what is wrong with the federal police. If we do not adopt a rigorous intellectual approach, we may end up with state police behaving like the federal police we criticize today”.
Adding his voice, Mr. Adewale Adeoye who is the Executive Director of Journalists for Democratic Rights, emphasized that state policing must be people-centred which must also reflect local realities structurally.
Adeoye posited that “state policing is not just about the government; it is also about the people. Security must be owned by the people. They must be involved in the conception, the process, and the implementation.
“The nature of crime in the South West is not the same as in the North East. State policing here has to reflect our own conditions. We want a structure that commands public integrity, transparency, and meets global standards”, he stated further.
