Meta description: IPCR DG Joseph Ochogwu says state police could curb rural insecurity and farmer-herder conflicts, provided strong oversight prevents abuse and political interference.

Dr Joseph Ochogwu, Director-General of the Institute for Peace and Conflict Resolution (IPCR), has said state police could help curb farmer-herder conflicts and rural banditry by improving local intelligence gathering, strengthening community relationships and enabling faster responses to security threats across Nigeria.

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Ochogwu made the remarks in Abuja on Thursday, 29 October 2026, while delivering the keynote address at a conference on sustainable peace organised by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation-West Africa.

The IPCR director-general, however, cautioned that decentralising policing would require strong professional standards, effective oversight and safeguards against political interference, warning that state-controlled security structures must not become instruments of intimidation or discrimination against minority communities.

“Decentralisation must bring security closer to citizens without exposing them to local political coercion,” Ochogwu said.

His remarks come as Nigeria advances a proposed constitutional amendment to establish a dual policing system, allowing state police services to operate alongside the federal police.

On 23 October, the Presidential Working Group on the National Policing Bill announced that the required constitutional threshold had been met, with at least 24 of the 36 state Houses of Assembly approving the amendment.

The proposal is expected to proceed through the remaining constitutional processes before it can take effect.

The debate over state policing has gained urgency amid persistent insecurity in rural communities, particularly in parts of North-Central and North-West Nigeria, where armed attacks, kidnappings and communal violence have disrupted livelihoods and displaced residents.

At the Abuja conference, themed “Peace and Conflict Resolution in Nigeria: Rethinking Strategies for Sustainable Peace”, participants examined the causes of recurring violence and considered ways to move beyond reactive security operations towards lasting solutions.

One panel focused on farmer-herder conflicts in North-Central Nigeria, where disputes over land, access to water, grazing routes and agricultural livelihoods have contributed to tensions between farming and pastoral communities.

Benue and Plateau states have experienced repeated attacks and communal clashes, leaving families displaced, farmland abandoned and local economies under pressure.

The violence has also deepened mistrust between communities and raised questions about the ability of public institutions to protect residents and resolve disputes fairly.

Ochogwu argued that insecurity could not be understood solely as a policing problem. Governance failures, weak institutions and the absence of trusted mechanisms for addressing grievances, he said, could allow local disputes to escalate into wider violence.

He identified land ownership, identity, political representation and access to public resources as issues that required impartial handling by authorities.

Where communities believe that institutions are unfair or unresponsive, unresolved grievances can become more difficult to contain.

The director-general cited the June 2025 attack on Yelewata in Benue State as an example of the devastating consequences of rural insecurity.

The assault, attributed to gunmen, left scores of people dead and displaced many residents.

Some assessments put the death toll at more than 200, although casualty figures varied across reports as emergency teams struggled to establish the full scale of the incident.

For communities affected by such violence, the consequences extend well beyond immediate loss of life.

Displacement can interrupt children’s education, destroy household incomes and prevent farmers from returning to their land, leaving families exposed to prolonged economic hardship.

The conference discussions therefore emphasised the need to combine security operations with early-warning systems, community dialogue, impartial law enforcement and mechanisms for resolving disputes over land and natural resources.

A separate session examined rural banditry, including the impact of armed criminal groups on freedom of movement, local markets and agricultural activity.

Participants considered how authorities could protect civilians while addressing the conditions that allow criminal networks to operate.

Ochogwu maintained that military and police operations alone would be insufficient to secure lasting peace if affected communities continued to face economic exclusion, weak public services and ineffective justice systems.

He also identified unemployment, inequality and the proliferation of small arms as factors that could aggravate insecurity when grievances were left unresolved.

Strengthening grassroots institutions and making local authorities more responsive to community concerns, he argued, would help prevent disputes from developing into violent confrontations.

The proposed state policing system could offer some advantages in this context. Officers familiar with local languages, terrain and community relationships may be better positioned to gather intelligence, recognise emerging threats and respond quickly to incidents.

However, decentralisation also presents significant governance challenges. The risk of political influence over recruitment, investigations and enforcement has remained a central concern in Nigeria’s debate over state police.

Differences in funding and institutional capacity between states could also affect the consistency of policing standards.

The constitutional amendment’s progress marks an important stage in the reform process, but approval by state assemblies does not by itself mean that operational state police services are already in place.

Further legal, administrative and implementation measures will be required before the proposed system can function.

In her welcome remarks, Angela Odah of the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation-West Africa highlighted the effect of insecurity on ordinary activities, including road travel and visits to rural markets.

She said the foundation was supporting dialogue and initiatives aimed at strengthening democratic participation, peaceful coexistence and practical responses to Nigeria’s social and economic challenges.

Odah explained that the conference was intended to review the country’s security situation and develop recommendations for sustainable peace.

The foundation also plans to continue the dialogue annually over the next three years.

The gathering brought together academics, civil society representatives, government officials and peacebuilding practitioners, including activist Ene Obi and Professor Plangshak Suchi of the University of Jos.

Their discussions reflected a wider recognition that lasting peace requires more than the containment of violence.

It also depends on institutions that communities trust, fair access to justice, economic opportunities and credible ways of resolving disputes before they become deadly.

For Ochogwu, state policing could form part of that response, provided the system is designed around public safety and accountability rather than political control.

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Its effectiveness will ultimately depend on whether decentralised security institutions can protect vulnerable communities impartially while working alongside broader efforts to address the causes of conflict.