By Sulyman Gobir
Former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mike Aondoakaa, has warned against allowing Nigeria’s 36 states to independently procure arms and security equipment for their proposed state police forces.
Aondoakaa said uncontrolled arms procurement by individual states could create confusion and pose serious challenges for national security authorities in monitoring the movement and distribution of weapons across the country.
Speaking during a Television interview on Monday, the former minister stressed that the establishment of state police must be backed by a clear legal framework to prevent abuse and ensure proper national oversight.
“You cannot allow 36 states to go buying equipment directly from the international market to arm their policemen. There should be a level of control,” Aondoakaa said.
He suggested that the Office of the National Security Adviser could play a central role in coordinating andb overseeing the procurement and distribution of military and paramilitary equipment for state police forces.
According to him, such a system would enable the Federal Government to monitor the type and quantity of weapons allocated to each state.
“The requirement for the procurement of equipment, military and paramilitary equipment, should be controlled, possibly within a legal framework through the National Security Adviser, so that we can know this type of arms went to this state, and this type of arms went to another state,” he said.
Aondoakaa warned that allowing every state to independently source weapons from the international market could create serious security and regulatory concerns.
“It will be a lot of confusion if the 36 states go to the market and import arms for their state police,” he added.
Beyond arms procurement, the former Attorney-General identified recruitment as another critical area that must be protected from political interference.
He warned against allowing politicians to influence the recruitment process or use state police structures to accommodate loyalists who do not meet professional requirements.
“The key areas I would like to observe that must be taken care of include the issue of recruitment, to avoid politicians breaking the laws to become state police officers,” he said.
“Politicians are not allowed to come and put people who are not worthy of being police officers.”
Despite the concerns, Aondoakaa expressed support for the establishment of state police, describing it as a necessary response to Nigeria’s growing and complex security challenges.
He recalled that the proposal was first strongly considered during the 2009 constitutional reform process due to the increasing burden on the Nigeria Police Force.
“State police is an idea that in 2009, during the first constitutional reforms, we brought the idea of state police because of the enormous challenges facing the federal police in policing the country. Unfortunately, we could not see it through,” he said.
His comments come amid renewed national debate over the introduction of state police, with supporters arguing that decentralised policing could strengthen local intelligence gathering and improve security response, while critics continue to raise concerns about political interference, human rights abuses and the proliferation of arms.
