According to the report from the Tribune News, the national chairman of the Association of Middle Belt Ethnic Nationalities, Mr Sule Kwasau advocated for the reintroduction of a decentralized policing system, similar to the native authority police that existed in the 1960s.
Arguing that local police officers would have a better understanding of their surroundings, he suggested that officers from other states might be less effective due to their lack of familiarity with the local terrain.
He also criticized the government's handling of security matters, calling for a change in policing methods.
He highlighted the poor remuneration of police officers and the dire circumstances faced by the families of those who lose their lives in the line of duty, emphasizing the need to reform police management and working conditions.
He said, "We’ve had it since the 1960s; we had native authority police, so why can’t we go back to that practice? Considering that the state police workforce will come from within the state, they know their terrain very well. They know where bandits are hiding; they know where armed robbers or black spots are. You can’t pick a policeman from Rivers State to come and police a rural area in Zamfara.
He doesn’t even know the terrain in the first place, so how can he be effective? And besides, the government has always paid lip service; they keep saying that security is everybody’s business. Yes, it is everybody’s business, but the government needs to change the way it does its policing. The remuneration of the police officers is poor. Many of them lose their lives in the line of duty, and their families are left to wallow in abject poverty. So we need a change in the way the police are being run."