Senate Approves Constitutional Amendment Bill On State Police

The Senate on Wednesday passed a constitutional amendment bill seeking to establish state police across Nigeria, as efforts to decentralise the country’s policing structure continue.

The proposed legislation was approved after lawmakers considered and adopted all 26 clauses of the bill during deliberations in the Committee of the Whole.

The bill seeks to provide a constitutional framework for the creation and operation of state-controlled police services that would function alongside the existing Nigeria Police Force.

If eventually enacted, the legislation is expected to alter Nigeria’s security architecture by granting states the authority to establish and manage their own police formations within the limits prescribed by the constitution.

The move follows years of debate over the need for state police as a means of addressing insecurity, improving intelligence gathering and enhancing community-based policing across the federation.

Supporters of the initiative have argued that decentralising policing would enable quicker responses to local security challenges and strengthen law enforcement at the grassroots level.