 Thank you for staying with us. You're still watching the breakfast on plus DB Africa and now it's time for a hot topic. But for us less just browse through the papers a little bit. So most of the papers this morning had the, well, sad incident that happened in Ibadun, which is the explosion. So on the garden, we have outrage as Ibadun explosion exposes illegal mining week regulations on the punch. It says residents blame maliant illegal miners as federal government probes blasts. And on the daily independent, it says federal government committee to investigate breach of explosives control law. And finally, the nation says Ibadun explosion three dead 77 injured 58 houses damaged. Well, we have other other topics here or other headlines here. So if you want to catch up, you can, you know, check out this newspapers. But now let's move over to our hot topic. And our hot topic this morning is reps iterate commitments to pass and build on state police. Now, one of the members said community policing is actually one of the very smartest way to police your people. Someone sees something, say something, know something, and they need to speak at the right time. But joining us to talk about all of this and how state policing can actually help us is comrade Mark Adebayo. He is a spokesperson. Good morning, Mr. Mark. Thank you for joining us. Yeah. Good morning. Thank you for helping me. Thank you so much. Yes. So I mean, we've seen we've seen what happened in Ibadun, sadly on Tuesday night, and we see how the explosion have, you know, claimed some lives, which as of right now, the toll is about three and about 77 or even more people were injured. And we're talking about state policing. What is the benefit of state policing? And how can we even start to use that in our system? Does that work? Because the reps right now are talking about the commitment to pass and build on state policing. As of right now, everything comes from a central place. But the the distribution or the division of labor, as we like to say, for the state. Now, do you think it's a great way? And how can we start to go about this? Yeah, well, first and foremost, my heart goes to the families of the 15th of the unfortunate blood that clean the ice. I'm destroying the properties in Ibadun. Yeah. My heart goes to them. I pray for this introduction to the public recovery. Yeah. Well, you know, everything is, I mean, everything is done. It's the same thing. The issue of the blast and the issue of security, the issue of state policing is something, you know, all of them are one and the same issue. If there was no failure of intelligence, if we had effective intelligence operations, people cannot gather explosives in the domestic area of a city like Ibadun. And it would be left there and then up to this disaster happened. On the issue of state police, state policing, community policing and reservoir. As good as it may seem on paper, I was part of the people maybe over about two decades ago that we started this, you know, focusing for state policing. But one factor has become, has been a constant denominator in all of these agitations for state policing. As good as it may seem, the major one is the misuse to which the state police can be put by the state governors that are notorious for their dictatorial tendencies, for their tyrannical tendencies and the disruptive, you know, orientation to reality, you see. If you get, let me give you an example. Look at the state-dependent electoral commissions. How well have the governors been managing that? How independent have those state-dependent electoral commissions have been? How fair are free and credible are the relations being conducted by those state-independent electoral commissions? You see that in most states, it is the party in power in most states that will claim to have won all the seats in all the local governments of the state. Is that party so popular? Is that government so popular to the extent that it will clear all the seats, all the council offices in those states? No. The question is that they simply just write results. The same way they are mismanaging the state-independent electoral commission is the same way they are going to be mismanaging the state police. Their opponents will no longer be able to breathe. They will not be even during elections that are conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission. They will lead the state police on their opponents. They will use the state police to disrupt the campaign. In the major fair, we have really common denominator in the role of this argument, in the role of this agitation and focusing on state police has been the misuse to win the state governors to put the state police as wonderful as need food as this might be, because of the obvious and clear failure of the federal police in policing and securing our lives. We might say, okay, let's have the state police, but there is the fear of the misuse to which these state police elements could be put by the state governors, because by the time you now give control and command and authority of the state police to the governors, we don't know what will become of that. It may later become counterproductive. That is the fear, except there is a robust legislation that will make it impossible for the governor. I don't see how that is going to happen, because they are going to be answering to the state governors and if they are answering to the state governors as their commander achieved, they will do the bidding of the state governors. Look at the way during elections, state governors are employing dogs to do their dirty work. So they will not need that, again, that they have official, uniformed people they are going to use to do whatever they do. That is the major fear. Just a moment. That is the major fear that the Indians have been expressing about this state police. Mr. Adebayo, just a moment. Are we not focusing on the negative at this moment, because no matter how we see it, even now, the state governors, yes, they have some control on the police that is federal. They are the ones who buy the cars. They are the ones who give them all other things that they use to function in the state. So if they want to use the police against their opponents, they can still use it. So if neighborhood watch, for instance, is working in Lagos and then Amotecun is also working in the Southwest, don't you think that's a semblance of what the state police could have been? Because I personally haven't seen when these people have been unleashed on the opponents of whoever is in power. I'm just saying. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you. Look, yeah, the state governors are mostly, you know, responsible nowadays for the maintenance of the so-called federal police. You are right about that. But they have limited control. They have limited control. They don't have for limited control of the state police. The constitution does not give them even the, because you're basically clear, before the governor can talk to the commissioner of police in the state, he needs to talk to the president. The president will talk to the IG, the IG, you know, that kind of crazy arrangement that he said. Of course, you know that they have found a way to bypass that and the state governors and the state CPs are working together. We are, they want to work together because it's not in all cases that the police, you know, as a matter of fact, the police, the CP is more powerful than the state governor when it comes to security management, because it is not acceptable to the governor. So, in the situation whereby we have had a situation in this country, when former governor Rotibe Amici, the former minister, was governor in the first state, we had a situation where a CP told the governor, you cannot pass this place. Told the CP, a CP told the governor, block the road and say, you cannot pass this place. So, the governor said, my state came down, just as I said, go back. So, the governor had to go back into his vehicle and go back. We have had a situation whereby police kidnapped the city governor in this state, in Alhambra state, was kidnapped by the police, you know, locked inside the toilet in this country. So, when it comes to security matters, when it comes to in the state, the CP has more power, has more authority than the governor, because he can disobey his orders. This is my concern. This is my concern, Mr. Adebayo. The concern is that the way you're talking that the state governors do not have power over the police, you seem to be exonerating them from all the heinous acts that have been happening in their states and they are the chief security officers. Are you saying this is just a name and they have nothing whatsoever that they could have done to make security better in their states? The governor could do a lot to improve security in their state. And because of the frustration that the issue of Amantecum has come up, the issue of Neighborhood Watch, like you have said, I give them that. We have not seen a situation whereby Amantecum or Neighborhood Watch or the rest of that have been reported to Mahandu citizens. We have not had such cases. And even those such cases happen probably to be very far and in between. So now the governors, you know, people make a mistake. They think that people do not think, let's talk constitution, let's talk law. There's no place in the in the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, that says the governor is a chief security officer of the state. There's no where, there's no place, there's no segment, there's no section or chapter of the Nigerian constitution. That said, the governor is a chief security officer of the state. It is not written there in black and white. It is not there. It is just a nomenclature given to the governors by people who do not know that there's nothing like that in the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Yes, he receives the security vote every month. He receives a huge security vote that has no everything and the rest of that. Now we, if it's not as if I'm throwing a video idea that maybe that I'm not saying it's okay, let's see how the people watch us, they are not and they are not as armed as the Nigerian police that we are talking about. If it is a dissent, advancing to the state governors, that they have no authority and control on command over the commissioners of police in the state. The only thing that they have is that they can inject a CP posted to the state, although it is at the discretion of the president of the IGP to move that CP. It may just ignore the governor. But where you have a good working relationship together, the police and the state governors have collaborated excellently where to manage security. But we still have all these lapses. I'm just wondering how much effective this state police would be. They would be effective in the sense that they know the terrain of their state. They know the community, the notion of the commissioners and the rest of that. What is important is that we must make sure if we are able to guarantee that they would not be a source of headache to the public, to the citizens, that they would not be, you know, escorting the citizens, the disturbing people that are going above their local duties. They don't be harassing citizens. The way we have been seeing it, it would be excellent. I believe that they would do a good job because they know their community is very, very well. All these things we do better, but we must ensure that no injustice is meted out to any citizen of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. We are never, this week, of it. It is very, very important for us. But as of right now, that still happens sometimes. But as of right now, that still happens sometimes. There are people who are driving, minding their business on the highway, and they are being stopped by this policeman to check their phones, check their boots, you know, they even do stop and search. So if you're talking about the security of people and injustice, it still happens even though the police is not being controlled by the state. So does it mean we will scrap it? Yes, exactly. In the US, 49 states, you know, have state police. The Hawaii, you know, has a shared division. Don't you think this is a good way for us? Because at the end of the day, we're looking for better ideas to ensure that we have good security. You're seeing insecurity, you know, in the North, you're seeing insecurity everywhere. Even on the highway, if someone is traveling, even for instance, if I'm traveling to the East, right now, there's insecurity. Even if I'm just minding my business somewhere, there's insecurity. And now there's even this issue of the explosion that happened in Ibadu. So if we don't have state police, because most times, it's always going to come from, you know, the federal level. How do they know the terrain? How do they, you know, have that trust with the people that are there? Because sometimes, you know, it's even people from the North that are being posted to the South, which is great as well. But we're talking about state police and we're talking about, you know, things becoming better. But if your your issue is the fact that there's injustice and, you know, it would be twisted, you know, they would be twisted and turned to the governor since the governor is now the one who's, you know, in charge of them. Then if that's it, then I'm sorry, I don't think that's valid because it still happens So what is your response to that? That happens now by the field and police. There's always the truth in fact that we shall lie to our government and state police. But maybe you don't know what I'm trying to say. What I'm saying is that I'm saying that is a good idea, you know, is a good idea. The issue of terrain, they understand the terrain, they understand the news and carries of their communities and things of that. Maybe they'll be able to, I mean, they'll be able to locate where criminals, high doubts can be and they'll be able to take action about that. It would be wonderful. Every of that element of the entire government of this state police argument is very okay. But the trepidation, the concern is that the governors might misuse the authority over these police. Comrade Femfalano, SCN, you know, about 24 hours or 48 hours ago also expressed the same concern that the state governor, that the state governor was alleged to have elucidated a work back as part in the state and up to today, nothing was out of that. The issue is that there was no state police and there's not been state police by then. There is this fear, there is this fear that the governors might just misuse this state police. So I guess that's fear of dealing with this. But that does not mean, follow me please, that does not mean that we should throw it away, maybe with the bad ones. We might, it is now the use of the citizens to stand up on our feet and call out any governor that misuses this, because already the chief has learned, we need to, we can't stop it again, we just have to go ahead about it. But the governors must have listened to and made sure that they don't misuse this police personnel to harass their opponents, to intimidate the citizens. The federal police wants to have an evidence that you have been harassed, but we see what they have been doing now, but they know that the young lady who was harassed in Augustine, whose food was smashed down by one inspector like that. And that inspector has been arrested, he's on the road, he's on the road trying. If the same thing, the same discipline can be brought into the body of the state police, we wonder for all of them. You see, the state police, we lose its usefulness entirely if it is unleashed on the citizens in a way that is not beneficial for security and our common interests. That's what I'm saying. We need the state police, because sometimes, hopefully, maybe this one can just bring different attitudes into the whole policing issue in Nigeria. Maybe now, the issue of the America that you are referring to, that is the different climate entirely. No comparison with that kind of climate, that kind of advanced democracies. That kind of advanced democracy. We shouldn't have to be baking, working to be better. Yes, absolutely, we have to be police, but the governors, the governors in those places are not missing those personnel. We are entirely different, we are not the same, the attitude of our leaders, of our rulers, of our governors and everything, from the way we conduct our affairs here, is totally different from what they are doing that please. We should not even compare ourselves to that lady. Yes, we are showing a sample of what they are doing with their own police. Can we replace them in Nigeria? That is the big question. We can try. Okay, sorry, Mr. Adebayo. Well, let's say if you want to learn a language, the best way to learn a language is by speaking it. So if we don't begin, we would never know the challenges that we need to surmount or not. So we do hope that we can begin something and see how it goes and be tweaking it a little bit as we go along. But now, the concern is the coalition of United Political Parties. What's your stand on the insecurity that's happening generally in Nigeria? You see, it is regrettable, it is dampening, it is actually very tragic that we have reached the level of this collision with Ghana. It is horrific. You wonder that we have almost 10 you know, intelligence agencies in this country. We have the DIA, we have the FIB, federal intelligence and intervention group. We have the state security services. We have the directorate of briefing intelligence. We have the national intelligence agency and so on and so on and so forth. And because if failure of intelligence is a guarantee or a security, if you do not get your intelligence gardener right, the society will pay for it. Failure of intelligence is what made America pay for that. Failure of intelligence was what led to it's paying for October 7th. So, but in this country today, you wonder what all these intelligence agencies are doing. Right before the analysis, Boko Haram was gathering, was mobilizing, was recruiting, was bringing in arms into the country in Borno State. They were training their personnel right under the analysis, they were training their personnel, they got arms, they got weapons and the only terror on this country and we are simply with it today and we are here to. So, the intelligence agencies seem to me to be completely useless. I mean nothing. If they could train in America to go and, you know, extraordinarily additionally from Kaya to Nigeria, how is it so difficult for them to be able to pinpoint the gathering, the only way to guarantee me is about the terrorist and bandit that's gathering somewhere and then move me, you know. How do you explain that bandits and terrorists will gather like 500 in number and move over 100 or 200 kilometers to go and keep people in Borno State, to go and keep people in New York State, to go and keep people in the animal state. All the time they are mobilizing, all the time they are gathering, all these intelligence agencies are not aware. What are you paying them? Billions of naira for every year. Every year, these guys collect the mongos amount of money every year for mongos food every year. What are they doing? So, it was specifically telling us the failure of security and that is the problem we are having. We have some machine that I'm computing that they don't know, they are only on, they don't know what to do about this security. That is why it is bourgioni, almost on a daily basis and it is you and I that are the regular Nigerians and the masses that are bearing the brunt to travel from now. Again, it seems that labels in the expressway doesn't seem to be, let me say the group has got the kidnappers and the bandits are back there. But thankfully, if not for the amotecum introduction in the south-west and that is why we just need to give the police a try. Even for the amotecum outfit, only those who have become of the south-west by now. So, we have the police, we have the army, we have the air force, we have the navy, we have what you call them now, civil defense and rest of that. Yet, insecurity is decreasing every day. How do you explain that? The seat of power, the federal capital territory are bourgia. We are the president in the side, we are the chief of army staff, we are the IGVs living, we are the chief of air staff, chief of navastar, LSDC, everybody, DSS, NIA, that is their headquarters. If a bourgia indeed cannot protect a bourgia, it is a very dangerous signal. Tending towards the failure for this country got to be. It is scary because nobody can, it is indivisible. That within a bourgia, we are left here because of all these circumstances. We are the president in the sides that we are unable to protect a bourgia. You see, on the daily basis, I had a security analysis saying that minimum of 12 to 13 cars are totally in a bourgia either snatched or removed via the apart in a bourgia or the daily basis. And people are kidnapped anywhere in a bourgia. Even on the day, you know, the issue of one child is more prominent and deadlier in a bourgia than any other place in the country today. So, the issue of one child, the police were on top of this before. I mean, sometimes, three years ago, one year ago, you see that the two policemen, and I don't know what has gone wrong with the game in a bourgia. So, if what is happening in a bourgia tells you what is happening, what is happening in a bourgia, if they are unable to protect a bourgia, how do you expect them to protect a bourgia in a bourgia, told them in a bourgia? Over 900,000 square meters, how are they able to protect the rest of the territory of Nigeria? We are unable to protect the police in Nigeria, capital, where all the power in the country reside and work. That is an issue. Hopefully, the security agencies will just sit down and do something about this thing. It is not a thing, it is so esoteric that it is impossible to secure this country with all these security agencies, the multi-layer, multi-level security agencies that we are after. That's why I'm wondering what the state police will be able to do. Federal capital territory, you are federal police there, why are they able to secure that federal capital territory? How come? So, is that not telling us something? And one thing that I'm sure about is that even Nigeria Army wishes to be effective, they will be, because we have one of the best trade mission personnel over the world. It is that knowledge globally that the Nigeria Army personnel have one of the best trade in the world. What you have to say, what is happening on this station? We have this call on the issue of corruption before. Look at the Mungos Corruption Association that has been, you know, concerning how corruption has been fouling the Kuku Aram students in Eastwap, because money is meant for armed and religion. So, we have to wrap up quickly, but I just want you to just touch on this. So now, I like the fact that you said we can try the state police because you just have to do a lot of things to see which won't work. Now, in trying the state police, do you think the powers should be limited? So, they're still stapled, because your concern right now is going to be harassment of citizens, injustice by the state governor, since he will be the one in charge. So, do you think the powers, we can have the state police, but their powers can be limited to ensure that this is not happening? Because at the end of the day, in as much as we're trying to battle insecurity, we still want the lives of Nigerians to still be secured and they're not being harassed by other people? Well, constitutionally and legally, their powers are not limited, because there are things they cannot go into. There are things that the federal police, only the federal police can handle. You know, their powers will be constitutionally limited, that's what I'm expecting to see. One of the things, one of the best things we can do is that to encourage the state governors to partner robustly and effectively with the civil rights organizations, you know, understand, they need to partner to ensure that this issue of harassment of citizens does not happen. You know, you need to partner, there must be a content in the curriculum that allows for the mental human rights chain of the citizens that they know how to handle to deal with the general public. Because it will be attacked with the general public. So they need to be effectively trained in inter-tribal relationships and for them to understand the fact that they are primarily attempting to secure the citizens and not to harass them and not to extort them. And then to put in place, you know, there will always be, but no matter how best or how well you train them, there will also be violence, there must be safety, you know, instruments put in place, there must be mechanisms put in place for them to know that there is a system of reward and punishment for the good and the bad. So, and I believe that's good. And more importantly also is the fact that before they start this state policing, they must ensure that they will take care of these policemen and women, they must make sure they are playing their surrounding well, they must make sure that they are in the state that will be responsible for their kids, their uniform, their car, their boots, their bed. All right. So, the situation will probably be corrected up for you. You know, one of the reasons why these people are very, very oppressive and aggressive against the citizens, the fact that they are not going to take care of, they are not going to take care of. And we all, we need to take that out very seriously. Yes sir. I want to say, it comes to me that there are police people. All right. This is where we have to wrap it up, sir. Sadly, we have to wrap it up here. So, there was a very important mention. Yes sir. Thank you so much. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for sharing your valuable contribution. We appreciate you. Thank you so much. All the way. Thank you so much for being here, thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you. All right. You've been speaking to Comrade Mark Adebayer, he's a spokesperson of the Coalition of United Political Parties, CUPP, and we'll be talking about the fact that the reps have reiterated the commitment to passing the bill on state police. We'll go on a short break and when we return we'll be looking at our next hot topic, but let's look at the weather first, see you soon.