State Houses of Assembly nationwide have started warming up to debate and possibly pass the long-awaited state police bill as Nigeria battles escalating banditry, terrorism and mass abductions that have exposed the limits of the current centralised policing system.
The move follows last week’s direct charge by President Bola Tinubu to the National Assembly to include state police in the ongoing constitutional amendment exercise and transmit the bill to the 36 state assemblies for concurrence.
With fewer than 400,000 police officers serving over 220 million Nigerians, vast rural communities have been left at the mercy of criminals, prompting governors and lawmakers to rally behind the decentralisation of policing.
In Plateau State, one of the hardest hit by repeated mass killings, the House of Assembly says it is fully ready to support the reform.
A senior legislative source told Observers Times, “We want this insecurity to stop. If state police will end it, Plateau Assembly is 100 per cent in support.”
Speaker Daniel Naalong had earlier written an open letter to the National Assembly urging speedy action, arguing that saving lives must come before fears of political abuse.
Sokoto, Zamfara, Kaduna, Borno, Kano and Nasarawa states have all signalled strong readiness to fast-track the bill once it lands on their tables.
Zamfara, widely regarded as the epicentre of banditry in the North-West, says it will soon forward its own state police bill to the House of Assembly.
Special Assistant on Media to Governor Dauda Lawal, Mustafa Kaura, confirmed, “Zamfara has been waiting for this for years. We are fully in support and the bill is coming soon.”
Kano plans to prioritise the debate immediately lawmakers resume from recess in mid-December, while Kaduna Governor Uba Sani has repeatedly insisted that Nigeria’s unitary policing model can no longer secure the country.
In the South-West, Ondo State says it is already ahead of the pack, pointing to the four-year-old Amotekun Corps as proof that state-controlled security works.
Chairman of the House Committee on Information, Tunji Fabiyi, said, “We have been running state police in everything but name since Amotekun started. It remains the most effective security outfit in the South-West.”
Only a constitutional amendment can make state police legal across the federation, meaning the ball is now firmly in the court of the National Assembly and the 36 state legislatures.
