The Ekiti State Governor and chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, Kayode Fayemi, has said that state governors spend more on police and army out of the security votes they collect than the Federal Government.
“Quote me, state governors fund police more than the Federal Government. We buy them vehicles. We pay them allowances. In some cases, we even buy ammunition, of course, under the authority.
“And if we are to engage our military in aid to civil authority, which you will find actually in 36 states in this country, we fund it.”
Governor Fayemi, who addressed participants today, March 10, at a two-day multi-stakeholders meeting on the Peace and Inclusive Security Initiative, organized by the Nigeria Governors’ Forum in partnership with the Center for Democracy and Development (CDD) in Abuja, said that security votes collected by state governors are used to support security agencies and their operations to enhance security in the states.
He was responding to questions on what the governors do with security votes and why they are against local government autonomy.
The governor said that not all the governors collect security votes, governor Fayemi, adding: “I can’t speak for others, but I also get feedback from other states in my capacity as chairman of the governors’ forum.
“There are hardly any of these institutions that you are talking about that we do not fund. We fund the police.
“Today, the military is involved in internal security operations, which really is a problem, because for me, when you inflate the role of the security institution, beyond its primary responsibility, you also have consequences that will come with that. That may not be palatable.
“But that is where we are because most Nigerians don’t trust the police. They will still come and beg governors to say ‘can you ask the brigade commander to put a roadblock in my area’.”
“If you engage the military, in a civil authority, your state is responsible to pay for the operations of the men that are engaged in that activity and not expect the military also to share that burden because that is not their primary responsibility.
“You have taken them out of their primary responsibility, you have to pay for it. So we pay for that, we pay for the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps.
“There is no security institution that you have that states are not responsible to more than the Federal Government that has primary responsibility for them.”
