By Aremu Sosanya
The House of Representatives has passed the state police bill.
This resolution followed the voting on the floor during the plenary session on Thursday, presided over by the Speaker of the House, Tajudeen Abbas.
According to Abbas, 288 lawmakers voted in support of the bill, while four were against it, a day after the lawmakers dedicated Thursday to debating the bill.
The lawmakers voted on the bill by a show of hands as the speaker explained that the electronic voting system is not functional. The bill seeks to strengthen Nigeria’s security architecture by creating an additional layer of policing while providing constitutional safeguards, clearly defined operational frameworks, oversight mechanisms, and delineation of powers between federal and state policing authorities.
Earlier, the House of Representatives released the final print of the Constitution Alteration Bills seeking to provide a constitutional framework for the establishment of state police, among others.
In a statement, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Akintunde Rotimi, noted that the bills represent the culmination of several months of rigorous legislative work undertaken by the House Committee on Constitution Review, following the receipt and consideration of numerous Constitution amendment proposals from lawmakers, government institutions, professional bodies, civil society organisations, traditional institutions, and citizens across the country.
It said the review process involved extensive stakeholder engagement through zonal and national public hearings, consultative meetings, expert sessions, and town hall engagements held across the six geopolitical zones, ensuring broad-based citizen participation and input.
The vote on state police comes amid rising insecurity in parts of the country.
Meanwhile, the Senate has passed the bill on the establishment of state police through second reading.
It deferred the debate to the Senate Committee on Constitutional Review. During the plenary, the Senate President Godswill Akpabio said the lawmakers will vote on the bill during their next sitting.
Critics of the federal police force say it has been slow to respond to incidents and cannot effectively secure the country — concerns brought back into the spotlight in recent weeks by a spate of school abductions in the southwest.
But experts warn that putting Nigeria’s 36 states in control of their own police could embolden the country’s powerful governors in a nation where politics is already often violent.
To go into effect, the Senate, as well as two-thirds of Nigeria’s state-level houses of assembly, must also approve the measure, which would amend the constitution.
