Some local government areas in Borno State exist just in names with no people occupying them, the speaker of the state assembly, Abdulkareem Lawan, said Wednesday.
Mr Lawan stated this, while opposing call for the creation of a new state and local government areas from the insurgency-infested state, at the ongoing public hearing on the 1999 constitutional review held in Bauchi State.
“Borno State is already devastated for now,” the speaker said. “We don’t need additional states and local government councils, because some of the councils just bear names without people.”
“So, there is no need for the creation of state and local governments out of the present Borno State,” Lawan added.
The lawmaker also said the state was not in need of state police, a position also adopted by the Attorney General of Yobe State, Saleh Samanja, who also opposed new creation of states nationwide.
“The state police can be abused for political reasons and create more insecurity, rather, measures should be put in place to encourage Community Policing under strict supervision,” Mr Samanja said.
Differing from their submissions is Sabiu Baba, the Secretary to the Bauchi State Government (SSG) who stated that his state was clamouring for the carving out of another state from it because some some existing states whose population and land mass is smaller than that of Bauchi already had more local government councils.
Mr Baba also supported the creation of state police to help lessen the burden of over-dependence on federal law enforcement agencies.
