The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Nentawe Yilwatda, has disclosed that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is considering the establishment of state police as part of efforts to address the growing security challenges across the country.

Speaking on the nation’s security situation, Yilwatda said the proposed state police structure would enable individual states to effectively tackle peculiar security threats within their jurisdictions.

“The President is also looking at the option of state police, working with state governments to see if state police can be implemented so that each state can also have a structure within the state to uniquely manage their security challenges,” he stated.

The APC chairman also dismissed claims that insecurity and economic hardship could cost the ruling party support in the 2027 general elections, expressing confidence that Nigerians would continue to support the APC.

“They will not,” he said when asked whether Nigerians could punish the party at the polls.

“They know what we’re doing for our people also to ensure that we get things right.”

Yilwatda defended the economic reforms introduced by the Tinubu administration, arguing that the government inherited an economy in serious distress but had begun reversing the trend.

“Before our coming, the economy was in disarray. We already had negative GDP,” he said.

“Today, Nigeria was among the top 10 countries that contributed to the GDP growth of the world.”

Addressing inflation and the rising cost of living, the APC chairman acknowledged the economic difficulties facing citizens but maintained that government policies were beginning to produce positive outcomes.

“If you look at the debt of inflation also, it hit 34 per cent. It dropped to 14 per cent,” he said.

“If you look at the last four quarters, it keeps dropping every quarter. It simply means that the decisions we took were right.”

He further highlighted several intervention programmes and infrastructure projects undertaken by the administration, including the student loan scheme, expansion of health insurance coverage, road construction projects and railway development initiatives.

“We have about 1.5 million students who have benefited from the student loan,” he added.

“Their school fees are paid completely and they receive support monthly.”

Yilwatda also defended the conduct of the APC presidential primaries, describing the process as transparent, organised and largely crisis-free.

“We have one of the most prepared political machines that can tackle any political opponent,” he said.

“You could see how organised the primaries were — almost crisis-free, almost zero incidences,” he added.