Senate in session: Photo credit National Assembly
By Abdullahi Abubakar
The senate on Wednesday passed a constitutional amendment bill seeking to establish state police across the country.
The bill was approved on after lawmakers considered and adopted its 26 clauses during the committee of the whole.
The proposed legislation seeks to create a constitutional framework for state-controlled police services alongside the existing federal policing structure.
The bill aims to strengthen security, improve intelligence gathering and enable faster responses to local security threats.
Opening debate on the bill, Opeyemi Bamidele, senate leader, said the proposed legislation was an executive bill transmitted by President Bola Tinubu.
Bamidele described the legislation as one of the most significant constitutional reforms since Nigeria’s return to democratic rule.
“This important Bill is an Executive Bill transmitted by Mr. President and Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, seeking to alter the Constitution to provide for the establishment of State Police Services and other related matters,” he said.
“This Bill represents one of the most significant constitutional reforms in our nation’s democratic evolution. It addresses a long-standing national conversation on the structure, effectiveness, responsiveness and sustainability of policing in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”
He said the current centralised policing structure had come under pressure due to the increasing complexity of security threats across the country.
“The increasing complexity of security threats, which include terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, communal conflicts, farmer-herder clashes, cybercrime, organised criminal networks and other transnational crimes, have placed enormous pressure on the existing policing framework,” Bamidele said.
He said the proposed amendments would preserve the federal police while creating constitutional pathways for states to establish their own police services.
According to him, states that choose to establish police services would be required to do so through legislation passed by their houses of assembly and meet national minimum standards prescribed by the national assembly.
He said the federal police would retain responsibility for counter-terrorism, organised crime, cybercrime, border security, arms trafficking, policing of the federal capital territory and other national security matters.
The lawmaker added that state police services would be responsible for enforcing state laws, maintaining public order, preventing and detecting crimes within their jurisdictions and protecting lives and property.
Bamidele said the bill contains safeguards against political abuse by prohibiting governors from directing state police services to unlawfully target individuals, political parties, groups or associations.
He added that the legislation prohibits the use of police powers for partisan, ethnic, religious, sectional or personal purposes.
