OPCI advocates restructuring of Nigeria with state police

By Steve Oni, Ilorin

National President of Oodua Progressives Congress Initiative (OPCI), Dr. Maruf Olanrewaju, has advocated the restructuring of Nigeria, where each state would be entitled to set up its own police, saying the United States of America “from where we copied our own form of democracy allowed for state and local government police.”

This, he stated, would go a long way to further address insecurity, not only at the local level but also the entire nation.

The OPCI boss, who spoke on Thursday in Ilorin, the Kwara state capital, at the Personality Programme of the NUJ Correspondents’ Chapel, commended President Muhammadu Buhari for the border closure, blaming the spate of insecurity in the past on porosity of the country’s border. Since the closure, he noted, security in the country has tremendously improved.

Olanrewaju explained why his group broke out of the Oodua Peoples Congress (OPC) led by Gani Adams, blaming it on insincerity as well as alleged atrocities and infractions by the leadership of the OPC.

He said: “Gani Adams was not carrying members along in the scheme of things in the OPC.

“Gani Adams is running the organisation like his personal fiefdom. These acts of insincerity, breach of trust and nonchalant attitude to members’ welfare were responsible for our break away from the OPC and the formation of the new Yoruba sociocultural group.

“Besides, OPC is now an illegal organisation because it has been banned by the federal government under former President Olusegun Obasanjo and we cannot continue dragging
the legality or otherwise of it with the federal government.

“But in the case of OPCI, we are duly registered with the Corporate Affairs Commission in Abuja and we instructed our coordinators across the country to do likewise with their respective state governments.

“For instance, OPCI has sponsored 120 members on scholarships to study abroad, among other empowerment programnes, which never happened under OPC.”

He said what the OPCI had achieved for its members in the last two years of its existence was much more than what OPC could claim to have achieved in its 26 years, adding that OPC leader allegedly collected a huge amount of money from the federal government ahead of the 2015 general elections without the knowledge of the members.