Security experts and other stakeholders in the country have expressed mixed feelings over the call on Federal Government by the police high command to merge the National Security and Civil Defence Corp and Federal Road Safety Corp with the force.• With Battered Image Of Police, No One Will Take IGP Seriously, Says Oji
The IGP, represented by Deputy Inspector General of Police, Ben Okoro, said the NSCDC and the FRSC were a duplication of the police force. The primary function of the NSCDC, according to the law establishing it, is to protect lives and properties. One of the crucial functions of the corps is to protect pipelines from vandalism. The agency is also involved in crisis resolutions. All these spelt out roles are also the duties of the NPF.
“If these agencies are merged back to the NPF, the IGP can regain some of his lost empire, with the accompanying power. Another security expert, Chukwukasi Oji, opined that the two agencies, the FRSC and the NSCDC should know their boundaries and concentrate on their constitutionally approved duties, while the police, as the lead agency, should concentrate on its defined role of protecting lives and property.
“The IGP has less than two years to retire from the force; he should focus on the little he can do for the force and leave other organisations alone for now. Before the agencies should be merged with the police, it will be a long-term plan and strategy that requires ingenuity. A Lagos-based journalist, who preferred anonymity, also said: “All three can be merged and then decentralised along the lines of state police and community police with each controlled by the state government and local government with clear areas of jurisdiction.”