A former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Olisa Agbakoba, has warned that without strong constitutional safeguards, state police could easily become instruments of political oppression rather than effective tools for maintaining law and order.

Agbakoba, however, urged the federal government to use the proposed creation of state police as an opportunity to implement far-reaching constitutional reforms that would insulate key democratic institutions from executive interference.

He, therefore, called for constitutional guarantees to secure the operational independence of institutions such as the EFCC, INEC, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and the Nigeria Police Force.

Agbakoba also warned that state police could become “tools of oppression” if constitutional safeguards were not put in place to prevent abuse by state governors.

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