Security experts, legal scholars and retired police chiefs have called for urgent constitutional reform to establish state policing, warning that delays could leave the South-West exposed to escalating threats.
They spoke on Wednesday at a one-day roundtable on constitutional state policing held at the University of Ibadan. The event was coordinated by Prof. Benjamin Aluko, Director of the TETFund Centre of Excellence in Security Management at UI, and Dr. Seye Oyeleye, Director General of the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria Commission.
They said terrorism, insurgency, banditry, industrial-scale kidnapping and cybercrime are spreading southward, and the South-West can no longer assume immunity.
“We’re here to generate ideas on implementing constitutional state policing right. If mishandled, it could threaten our democracy, peace, and stability. We’ll send our findings to South-West governors for action,” Prof. Aluko said.
Speaking, Dr. Adesina Fagbenro-Byron, Chairman/CEO of Mothergold Limited & Consulting, framed the issue as a test of state legitimacy and citizen trust. He urged a 12-month rollout involving constitutional amendments, independent commissions to prevent politicisation, and investment in training, technology and intelligence-led policing.
“Reform delayed amid escalating threats is risk compounded,” Fagbenro-Byron said, cautioning against “decentralising dysfunction” by replicating the Nigeria Police Force’s problems at state level.
Former Oyo State Attorney General Mutalubi Adebayo, SAN, recalled Nigeria’s pre-military federal policing model and said President Tinubu’s support must be matched with collaboration between federal and state forces.
Former Lagos Commissioner of Police Fatai Owoseni, rtd, argued that underfunding and a dormant Police Council were bigger problems than the absence of state police.
He cited Amotekun and community policing as incomplete steps, and warned that ethnic tensions could derail the process without security.
Prof. I.O. Albert of UI noted that “police are victims of the system too,” while retired AIG Adeoye Olafimihan stressed unity: “The police are the people, and the people are the police.”
Participants agreed that a layered framework covering legal foundations, operational capacity, and public trust is needed, and resolved to forward recommendations to South-West governors.
