TheCable

Rilwan Akiolu, oba of Lagos, says the problem of the Nigerian police force started with President Muhammadu Buhari during his regime as the military head of state.

According to PUNCH, he said this at a seminar which Ibrahim Idris, inspector general of police, organised in Lagos.

Akiolu, a retired assistant inspector-general of police, reportedly said the regime of Buhari, which was between 1983 and 1985, was not committed to funding of the force.

He, however, urged the president to improve on the effectiveness of the police “now that he has come back as a democrat.”

“The military killed the efficiency and effectiveness of the Nigeria police force,” he said.

“The problem of the police started with Buhari in 1984 when he was head of state. They said (Sunday) Adewusi wanted to take over the government.”

Although he did not mention those he was referring to as “they”, the monarch added that he had “explained to them” that such move to take over the military government “was not possible at all.”

“There was a meeting sometime ago in Abuja where all of us were summoned. I was very happy when Buhari told us that 10,000 policemen would be recruited for efficiency and effectiveness of the Nigeria police force,” he said.

Akiolu said in 1997, he had suggested to Abdulsalam Abubakar, former head of state, to create sufficient police stations in a bid to solve cases of highway robberies but “what he (Abubakar) told me was that ‘commissioner, do you want me to commit all the resources of the government to the police alone?”