Prince Adewole Adebayo, the presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) has said if Nigeria must eliminate crime and corruption, it must start within the government circle.
He stated this during the second series of presidential town-hall meeting organised by ARISE TV in collaboration with Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD).
While admitting that though it would take a strong political will to take such decision, he said half of those in government would have been in jail, should the police system in Nigeria be effective.
He said: “And the two steps to take to eliminate crime is to eliminate crime within government. That is the hardest thing to do in Nigeria.
“Let’s not run away from forming a government. At the federal level, there’s an assisting constitution I’m going to swear in on May 29. That constitution, in it has all it takes to eliminate crime.
“One of the reasons why we don’t have an efficient police system is that if we had an efficient police system, half of those who are in government will be in jail.
“So, it’s not in the interest of government as it’s today, to have an effective police. But they need the police for protection. So, I will make that difference.”
The second edition of the town hall has four presidential candidates in attendance namely: African Action Congress, Omoyele Sowore; Action Democratic Party, Mallam Yabagi Sani; All Progressives Grand Alliance, Professor Peter Umeadi, and Adebayo.
The first of a series of the town-hall meetings was set for four presidential candidates who were selected on the basis of the performance of their parties in an online survey conducted by CDD.