State police bill gets assemblies’ clearance – Daily Trust

A complete of 24 State Houses of Assembly have to date accepted the proposed constitutional modification for the institution of state police, assembly the minimal requirement for the reform to proceed to the subsequent stage of the legislative course of.

The Presidential Working Group on the National Policing Bill, chaired by the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, introduced the event yesterday, saying the approvals had met the constitutional threshold required for altering the 1999 Constitution to introduce a decentralised policing system.

The 24 states which have accepted the proposed state police constitutional modification bill are Adamawa, Delta, Edo, Kwara, Nasarawa, Ogun, Osun, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers, Taraba, Zamfara, Enugu, Anambra, Imo, Ekiti, Kebbi, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Benue, Cross River, Abia, Yobe and Kaduna.

An evaluation of the approvals by geopolitical zone reveals that the South-South has the very best quantity with six states: Delta, Edo, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa and Cross River.

The South-West, South-East and North-Central have 4 states every. The South- West states are Ogun, Osun, Oyo and Ekiti, whereas the South-East states are Enugu, Anambra, Imo and Abia. The North-Central embody Kwara, Nasarawa, Plateau and Benue.

The North-East has three states – Adamawa, Taraba and Yobe, whereas the North- West additionally has three: Zamfara, Kebbi and Kaduna.

The approval represents a serious step in the direction of the proposed restructuring of Nigeria’s policing system, which presently operates largely below a centralised association via the Nigeria Police Force.

Under part 9(2) of the 1999 Constitution, an modification requires the assist of at the very least two-thirds of the 36 State Houses of Assembly, representing 24 states, earlier than it might probably proceed to presidential assent.

The proposed modification is meant to offer for a twin policing construction comprising a Federal Police Service and State Police Services, permitting state governments to determine police providers inside a nationwide authorized and regulatory framework.

However, assembly the required variety of state approvals doesn’t imply that state police can start operations instantly as additional constitutional and legislative steps are nonetheless required.

The bill, generally known as the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (Sixth Alteration) Bill, 2026, was handed by the Senate on June 24 and subsequently by the House of Representatives on July 23, 2026.

The Clerk to the National Assembly, Kamoru Ogunlana, transmitted the bill to the 36 State Houses of Assembly on September 16 for consideration and approval, according to the constitutional modification process.

Although the National Assembly requested the state legislatures to speak their choices inside 30 days, the clerk clarified that the interval was an administrative expectation fairly than a constitutionally binding deadline.

The push for state police has gained momentum amid persistent safety challenges throughout the nation, together with kidnapping, banditry, terrorism, communal violence and different prison actions.

Supporters of the proposal argue that decentralising policing would enhance intelligence gathering, strengthen neighborhood policing and allow regulation enforcement companies to reply extra rapidly to safety threats peculiar to particular person states and communities.

They additionally contend that officers recruited and deployed inside their states may develop a greater understanding of native terrain, prison networks and neighborhood dynamics.

However, issues have been raised over the potential of governors utilizing state police to intimidate political opponents and critics, in addition to questions on funding, recruitment, operational independence, human rights safety and accountability.

Provisions

The passage of the chief bill formally units the stage to dismantle the decades-old unitary construction of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) and change it with a twin mannequin, comprising the Federal Police Service and State Police Services.

Under the newly substituted part 214 of the structure, the Federal Police Service retains absolute monopoly over main safety sectors, guaranteeing that the federal authorities stays the final word custodian of the nation’s territorial integrity. The Federal Police will preserve unique jurisdiction over National safety, terrorism, and cybercrime; inter-state crimes, arms-trafficking, and worldwide crime syndicates.

The bill clarifies that whereas state police will handle home public security, they’re fully barred from cross-border regulation enforcement. A State Police Service shall not train police powers exterior the borders of the state for which it’s established, besides as particularly authorised by an Act of the National Assembly.

Section 214 gives: “There shall be a police service for the federation to be known as the Federal Police Service. There shall be established for each state of the federation a State Police Service subject to this constitution and an Act of the National Assembly. No State Police Service shall commence operational policing unless it has been established by a law of the House of Assembly of the state and certified as meeting national minimum standards in the manner prescribed by an Act of the National Assembly.”

One of probably the most intensely debated elements of the bill centres on the federal authorities’s veto energy to override state management. The laws empowers the president to bypass state governors and quickly assume direct operational command of any State Police Service below strict distinctive metrics.

The circumstances below which a federal takeover can happen are explicitly detailed to forestall arbitrary federal interference, whereas guaranteeing that rogue or incapacitated state police forces are rapidly dropped at heel. These triggers embody: the place there’s an precise or imminent breakdown of public order or public security, which the State Police Service is unable or unwilling to comprise; the State Police Service is unable to operate by motive of great administrative, monetary, operational or different incapacity; there’s substantial proof that the State Police Service is getting used for egregious or systematic violation of basic rights, partisan or electoral intimidation, ethnic, non secular or sectional persecution, or illegal obstruction of this structure.”

The bill stipulates that such federal interventions have to be authorised in writing by the president, explicitly stating the grounds, focused territory and anticipated period of the takeover. Furthermore, a proper discover of the intervention have to be transmitted to the affected state governor, Speaker of the State House of Assembly, the National Police Council and the National Assembly inside 48 hours of execution.

To stop indefinite federal occupation, the bill notes that no intervention can proceed past a interval prescribed by the National Assembly, and have to be validated by a decision supported by the Senate. Crucially, the legality, scope and period of such look-ins stay absolutely topic to judicial evaluate by the courts.

To insulate the management of each policing tiers from political manipulation, the bill launched a inflexible tenure system and strict tips for the elimination of police chiefs.

The Federal Police Service shall be headed by an Inspector-General of Police appointed by the president on the recommendation of the National Police Council, topic to Senate affirmation. 

Conversely, the State Police Service shall be headed by a commissioner of police appointed by the governor on the advice of the National Police Council, topic to affirmation by the State House of Assembly.

Crucially, neither the IGP nor a state commissioner of police may be ‘whimsically’ suspended or faraway from workplace by the chief arms of presidency. Removal can solely be triggered for “stated cause” in accordance with a good listening to, and have to be accepted by a two-thirds majority decision of both the Senate (for the IGP) or the respective State House of Assembly (for a state commissioner).

Furthermore, part 215(7) locations a strict prohibition on political directives: “No direction under this section shall require the arrest, detention, investigation, non-investigation, deployment or use of force against any named person, political party, association or class of persons except in accordance with law, or require a police service to suppress lawful political activity, discriminate against any person or group, or enforce the law for a partisan, ethnic, religious, sectional or personal purpose.”

What occurs subsequent?

With the required 24 state approval threshold secured, the National Assembly is anticipated to obtain and confirm the resolutions of the state legislatures earlier than continuing with the subsequent steps within the constitutional modification course of.

The constitutional modification for the institution of state police can then be transmitted to the president for assent in accordance with the prescribed process of the National Assembly.

Meanwhile, the continued authorized evaluate and validation strategy of the draft National Policing Bill have to be finalised and offered to the president for consideration and subsequent transmission to the National Assembly.

The National Assembly will then have to contemplate and go the operational laws required to present impact to the proposed policing construction.

States can even have to enact their very own enabling legal guidelines and fulfill the prescribed readiness and certification necessities earlier than their police providers can start operations.

The proposed reform due to this fact stays a course of involving constitutional modification, federal laws and state-level implementation fairly than an instantaneous switch of policing powers to state governments.

The key excellent points embody the ultimate provisions of the National Policing Bill, the safeguards towards political interference, the funding preparations for state police and the mechanisms for coordinating operations between federal and state safety companies.

Although the 24-state threshold marks a big legislative milestone, the precise graduation of state police will rely upon the completion of the remaining authorized and institutional necessities within the months forward.