The Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola has insisted that for the Federal Government to effectively tackle the current security challenges in the country, the issue of state police must be given a serious consideration.
According to him, with the worsening security situation across the federation, it will be erroneous for the Federal Government to continue to carry on with the belief that it can effectively police every nook and cranny in Nigeria from Abuja.
Fashola, who made his position known while handing over the newly-constructed Lagos State Command and Control Centre, said the idea of a proper and true federal police is not something Nigeria can continue to toy with.
He said: “The Federal Government cannot continue to believe that they can police the entire country from a central command in Abuja. It is not possible. It is illogical. It is an exercise in futility. And the quicker we depart from it, the better the country will be.”
According to him, every state that has the power to give judgement through its state high court, through its own magistrate, make laws through its legislature, adding that it must therefore have the concomitant power to enforce its laws and police the state.
“That is one of the anomalies of our federation that I think that we must correct urgently rather than later,” he said, adding that in spite of these constitutional deficiencies, Lagos State will continue to be creative and find ways to make it better.
The governor, who traced the story of the command centre to January 2009, with a modest 15 telephone operators said that the number has increased to 100 by July, 2010.
He said: “They manage emergency calls, they receive the calls, take the callers location, distress time, identify the type of emergency needed and escalate the call to the appropriate agency. This is what they do and I am amaze with the number of calls received since its commencement.”
According to him, by December 2011, the centre had processed over 32 million calls, out of which 62,000 emergency calls were treated by the centre.
He added that by October 2011 over two million calls were recorded out of which over 638,000 were fake emergency calls.
“These were calls that were trumped up,” he said, adding that reduction in the number of fake callers will make a lot of difference between life and death.
He revealed that calls made provide the opportunity to study the trends and deploy emergency services to the area where they are needed most.
He said: “The data also helps us in our monthly security meeting to monitor the growing crime behaviour in the state and to provide the needed solution to nip in the bud crime within the state.
“I want to appeal therefore for restrain. I want to advise that all calls are recorded.
“In time, we may decide to enforce the law on fake calls, in order to serve as a deterrent.
“We have already instituted a bill to the state House of Assembly to give us the power to sanction as it is done in other parts of the country.”