The Senate has passed a constitutional amendment bill seeking to establish state police across the country.
The bill was approved on Wednesday after lawmakers considered and adopted its 26 clauses during the committee of the whole.
The proposed legislation aims to create a constitutional framework for state-controlled police services alongside the existing federal policing structure. It is designed to strengthen security, improve intelligence gathering, and enable faster responses to local threats.
Opening debate on the bill, Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele said the proposed legislation was an executive bill transmitted by President Bola Tinubu.
Bamidele described it 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 noted that the current centralised policing system is under strain due to increasingly complex security challenges.
“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.
According to him, the amendment will preserve the federal police while creating constitutional pathways for states to establish their own police services.
States opting to create police outfits must pass enabling laws through their houses of assembly and meet national minimum standards set by the National Assembly.
He added that the federal police would retain responsibility for counter-terrorism, organised crime, cybercrime, border security, arms trafficking, and policing of the Federal Capital Territory.
Bamidele said safeguards were included to prevent abuse, including provisions that prohibit governors from directing state police to unlawfully target individuals or groups.
The bill also bans the use of police powers for partisan, ethnic, religious, sectional, or personal purposes.
Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, representing Abia South, said he had previously opposed state police but had reconsidered his stance due to worsening insecurity.
“Mr. President, I used to be one of those that is against state police. Mark my words; I used to be,” he said.
“But today, we know that we have very serious insecurity problem that can only be solved by thinking outside the box. And I think that this is part of it.”
Abaribe, however, expressed concerns about the provisions of the police legislation that would operationalise the amendment.
“But our issue on this is actually what goes into the police act. It’s not really the amendment of the constitution. Because you can amend the constitution but then in the act, matters of usage of the police is where most Nigerians are bothered about,” he said.
He warned against granting excessive powers to the president to take over state police formations.
“We cannot have a situation where the president just looks at a state, maybe he’s not in good terms with the governor, and decides that he will take it over,” he said.
Abaribe also raised concerns about funding, suggesting that allocations for state police commissions should be constitutionally guaranteed and paid directly to them.
“So that what we are seeing today, with regard to local government funds, we don’t have to see it with the police,” he said.
“I support this bill and I ask my colleagues to please also support it, provided we put the safeguards that we guarantee each Nigerian his rights.”
Senator Aminu Tambuwal, representing Sokoto South, reiterated his long-standing support for state police as a means of deepening federalism.
“Mr. President, let me make it clear that I am in support of this bill and I am in support of the idea of state police,” he said.
“I have been consistent on this, not only when I was in the House of Reps as Speaker and as Governor of Sokoto State, even while here in the Senate, in the number of interviews I granted, I alluded to the fact that I support state police because I believe that that will also be a major leap into entrenchment of federalism in Nigeria.”
Tambuwal cited recent attacks in Sokoto as evidence of the urgent need for alternative security strategies.
“Only about three or four years ago, in my senatorial district, we lost over 80 people in Dange Shuni local government. Only three or four days ago, in the same local government, we lost some personnel of police that were there on rescue mission to send away bandits,” he said.
“So that is a clear picture of what is happening in most parts of the country. This is needed. Every effort, any effort to curb this menace of insecurity in Nigeria is needed.”
He also echoed concerns about safeguards to prevent abuse by state authorities.
“We must have safeguards that will now ensure that there is no abuse on the part of those who are today in that position that we have left. And those who are coming, even those from amongst us, to this position of being governors of particular states,” he said.
Tambuwal urged lawmakers to support all efforts aimed at improving security nationwide.
“I believe that the Senate of this country, we must ensure that we support Mr. President, support the security agencies in every effort that will establish security in every part of this country,” he said.
For the amendment to take effect, the bill must be approved by at least two-thirds of state houses of assembly before being transmitted to the president for assent.
