Former President Goodluck Jonathan says the state police is crucial to addressing the challenge of insecurity in the country.

Jonathan spoke in Abuja on Monday at a national security dialogue organised by the house of representatives.

The former president said the state police should be established on a framework that makes it difficult to be abused.

“The issue today is very critical. One thing is that we don’t need to debate whether we should have state police or not. I think that matter has been concluded. The issue is the operations of the police,” Jonathan said.

He said security in Bayelsa was epileptic in the late 90s, noting that it was a security architecture in the form of state police that salvaged the situation.

“So there is no way we can manage internal security if states would not have their police,” he added.

The former president said the concern is how state police would freely operate without the interference and control of governors and other actors.

“But how would the state police function vis-á-vis the national security architecture,” he asked.

“When I set up the 2014 national dialogue, during that period we had lots of challenges in the country.

“People were agitating so many areas but one thing that the almost 500 (people) agreed without much ado was the issue of state police.”

Jonathan said state police is not new to the country as it was practised during the military regime.

“You know in this country, we operated it before. Why is it that the military scrapped it? It was because of the abuse and that is the area we should concentrate on,” he said.

“How do we manage the state police so it would not be abused by state political actors?

“If state political actors are abusing the state police and using the state police to harass and make life miserable for people who do not belong to their political parties, would the commander-in-chief sit down and watch or would he order the military to go and overrun the state police? Of course, that would bring crisis.”

Jonathan said the state police should be designed in a way that will not make it clash with the national security architecture of the country.

“These things need to be done carefully,” he said.

“So, if we are talking about state police, we must also rejig INEC and the police must not be used against or to the advantage of any political party.”

He advocated that the conduct of elections should be improved to require minimal participation of the police.

“So, the national assembly needs to look into all these. These are the areas that we have to concentrate on,” he said.

“The issue of the need for states to have their own police is not negotiable. There is no way we can continue this kidnapping that is going on in this country.

“Commercial kidnapping started around 2006, I don’t want to go into that history. But it started in the Niger Delta. Now it is all over the country.

“The only thing that can help us if we cannot stop it completely at least we reduce it to the barest minimum is for states to have their police.”

Jonathan said the state police must be well equipped with sophisticated weapons to be able to combat aggression from criminals.

“Sometimes people say the state police should have limited weapons, that the calibre of weapons they should have should be limited. That is an area that must also be cleared, we must be careful with it,” he said.

“I am not expecting states to have rockets and missiles, but the conventional weapons if you look at the calibre of weapons criminals use, the states must have superior weapons or at least equal.

“If you make the state (police) have weapons that are inferior to the ones that the criminals are using, then you are asking them to commit suicide in the field.

“So we must not even go there in terms of limiting the capacity of the state police. A state that has enough resources must equip the police very well and that state can also assist other states that have challenges.”

Also speaking, Vice-President Kashim Shettima said the federal government would support the consensus of the dialogue.

“The president is committed to listening to your recommendations and insights invariable to share in the policies that would lead us to a more secure and good society,” Shettima said.

On his part, Abdulsalami Abubakar, former head of state, harped on the need for the government to be transparent, honest, and accountable to citizens.

Abubakar said there should critical discussion on how the state police would operate.

The Federal Government says it would sell off five electricity distribution companies (DisCos) under the management of banks and Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) in the next three months to technical power operators.

Adebayo Adelabu, minister of power, spoke in Abuja on Monday when the members of the senate committee on power visited the ministry.

The five DisCos include Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC), currently under the management of the United Bank for Africa (UBA); Benin Electricity Distribution Company, Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company, and Kano Electricity Distribution Company, managed by Fidelity Bank, while Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company is under AMCON management.

The DisCos are under the management of the banks and AMCON due to their debt burden.

Adelabu said the energy distribution assets are technical and as such, they should be under the management of technical experts.

He also said the tough decision on the DisCos has become necessary because the entire Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) fails when they refuse to perform.

According to Adebayo, the ministry will prevail on the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to revoke underperforming licenses and also change the management board of the DisCos if it becomes the solution.

“On distribution, very soon you will see that tough decisions will be taken on the DisCos. They are the last lap of the sector. If they don’t perform, the entire sector is not performing,” Adebayo said.

”The entire ministry is not performing. We have put pressure on NERC, which is their regulator to make sure they raise the bar on regulation activities.

”If they have to withdraw licenses for non-performance, why not? If they have to change the board of management, why not?

“And all the DisCos that are still under AMCON and Banks, within the next three months, must be sold to technical power operators with good reputations in utility management.

“We can no longer afford AMCON to run our DisCos. We can no longer afford the banks to run our DisCos. This is a technical industry and it must be run by technical experts.”

The minister further said it has become necessary to reorganise the DisCos for efficiency.

He stressed that Ibadan DisCo is too large for one company to manage.

FG TO REVOKE METRE CONTRACT FROM FIRM

Adelabu also dropped the hint that the federal government mobilised a company named Messr Zigglass with $200 million (N32 billion) to supply three million meters that were yet to be supplied to date.

“If you held N32 billion for these years, where is the interest,” he asked.

According to Adelabu, President Bola Tinubu directed that the contract be revoked.

He said the government will bridge the current eight million metering gap in the next four to five years.

The minister said the funding for the metre is coming from a seed capital of N100 billion and N75 billion.

He added that the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NISA) is coming to the aid of the ministry with the fund.

1. Following the recent rebound of the naira against the dollar, the price of a 50 kilogramme bag of rice has dropped to an average of N67,000 in Lagos, Abuja, Ogun, and others, from about N90,000 in February 2024. In communities close to the borders, our correspondents gathered that the staple was selling at a much lower rate compared to what was obtained in the cities.

2. President Bola Tinubu on Monday said foreigners pump a lot of money to fund illegal mining and terrorism across Africa. The president stressed the need for African countries to strengthen regional cooperation and institution-building to address the evolving threat of terrorism on the continent.

3. The Federal Government on Monday vowed to sell off the five electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) as blackout persists. Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu said banks and the Asset Management Company (AMCON), which have been managing these DisCos, having taken over because of the failure of the management to repay loans, lack the technical capacity.

4. President Bola Tinubu will today embark on an official visit to the Kingdom of the Netherlands for high-level discussions with Prime Minister Mark Rutte. A statement last night in Abuja by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, said the President is visiting on the invitation of Prime Minister Rutte.

5. The Rivers State House of Assembly has passed the Local Government Amendment Bill into law without the assent of Governor Siminalayi Fubara. The Assembly passed the Bill yesterday, despite the State High Court’s order directing the status quo on the issue of elongating the tenure of elected local government officials, which formed part of the amendment.

6. The Binance Regional Manager for Africa, Nadeem Anjarwalla, who escaped from a Nigerian detention facility on March 22, has been arrested in Kenya. The fugitive was reportedly arrested by Kenayan Police Service while he was hiding in the East African country.

7. The naira depreciated in its value against the United States dollar to N1,234 at the official foreign exchange market on Monday, according to data obtained from the FMDQ securities exchange. The exchange rate means the naira fell by N65 or 5.26 per cent from N1,169.99/$1 recorded on Friday.

8. In what appears to be a retaliatory cult clash, one Azeez Olaitan was reportedly killed by suspected members of the Aiye Confraternity in the Alogi area of Odeda Local Government Area of Ogun State on Sunday. This is just as the Ogun State Police Command said that the window of amnesty extended to members of various cult groups in the state to surrender their arms and be reintegrated into society was still open.

9. Tragedy struck at Yar’Gwanda village in Tsanyawa local Government area of Kano State at the weekend when a 60-year-old man, Malam Danjuma, his son, Ibrahim, 35, and Aminu Gaye, also 35, died in a pit latrine while trying to recover a cellphone. One of the rescuers, Abba Alasan, 28, was, however, rescued from the latrine.

10. Controversial cross-dresser, Idris Olanrewaju Okuneye, alias Bobrisky, has appealed against the six months imprisonment imposed on him by the Federal High Court in Lagos which convicted him of charges of abuse of naira. In the appeal lodged on his behalf by his lawyer, Bimbo Kusanu, Bobrisky wants the Court of Appeal to convert the six-month imprisonment to N50,000 fine on each of the four counts he was convicted of.