Adewole Adebayo, Presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), has said that if  the police system in Nigeria was effective, half of those in government would be in jail.

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).

Adebayo said, “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. In that constitution, it has all it takes to eliminate crime.

“And the two steps to take to eliminate crime is to eliminate crime within government. That is the hardest thing to do in Nigeria.

“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 – 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.

The leading parties were Labour Party (LP), All Progressives Congress (APC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP).

The APC presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu however opted not to participate while Atiku Abubakar of PDP was represented by his running mate.