“State police will be used by the Governors to persecute the opposition,” Shehu Sani alleges

Former Kaduna Central Senator, Shehu Sani, has voiced concerns over the potential misuse of state police by governors, suggesting they could exploit it to target opposition members and manipulate elections.

Sani cautioned that state police might be utilized to intimidate non-indigenous residents and undermine the authority of federal law enforcement when convenient.

In a post shared on X, he also raised apprehensions about the possibility of recruiting ruling party-affiliated thugs into the state police force, should it be established.

President Bola Tinubu and state governors are considering the potential implementation of state police as a solution to address cases of kidnapping, banditry, insurgencies among other security challenges.

The possibility of establishing state police was among the matters deliberated upon during a recent meeting between Tinubu and governors at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.

While reacting to the move, the former lawmaker said: “The State police will be used by the Governors to persecute the opposition, to harass ‘non-indigenes,’ to rig elections and to counter the federal police in case of conflict of interest between the Federal Government and the state. Most of the state ruling party thugs will be recruited into the state police.”