Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, has disclosed that the Upper Chamber was working on the establishment of a National State Police Commission as the lawmakers deliberate on the challenge of confronting insecurity in the country
After leading the Senate leadership to a meeting with President Bola Tinubu in Lagos, Akpabio who said they were there to felicitate with the Nigerian leader on the eid-el-kabir festival, maintained that insecurity in the country has ebbed in the last three years.
Asked what the lawmakers were doing to strengthen government’s efforts in confronting insecurity, he said: “we believe that working with him, the National Assembly can come up with a solution. a framework that will enable the states to also partake in securing the lives and properties of the citizens and that is in the area of the state police and we are looking at ways of creating a positive and not a negative state police and something that can have a national State Police Commission that will regulate the conduct of state policing and also promotion, training and all. So we will do our best to assist in that direction and sensitization also.
“The citizens also need to know that they have to watch out for bad acts in their society because they all know it’s a very unfortunate situation but we do know that the President is poised and the security services are poised so that area will need serious improvement with all of us working together.”
On infrastructure, he said: “the area of infrastructure is already ongoing and then of course we need to ramp up our crude oil production. Now that we have started selling crude in Naira and Dangote refinery is doing well and it’s taking a lot so we need to improve on production to enable us also export to end foreign exchange to put in other sectors of the economy. So we are still looking forward to foreign directives.
“We are also looking forward to direct investment in areas of agriculture and all that.
“So for instance if you are talking about the president doing well, just in two areas of infrastructure; the coastal road is one area that he will be reimbursed for. And then of course the Lagos, Bafagry, Sokoto has about 74 dams that will revolutionize the agricultural sector in the country.
“And so we believe strongly that God will assist him and God will assist us. So God will assist Nigeria to see better days in the future so that we can sleep with our two eyes closed.”
