State Police: 30 states approve bill, six yet to respond

Senate gives November 19 deadline for outstanding submissions By Henry Umoru ABUJA — The proposed establishment of state police in Nigeria has moved closer to becoming law, with 30 State Houses of Assembly approving the constitutional amendment, while six others are yet to formally transmit their decisions to the National Assembly. The Senate has given the outstanding states until November 19 to forward their resolutions, ahead of the transmission of the bill to President Bola Tinubu for assent.

The Senate Leader, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele (APC, Ekiti Central), disclosed this on Wednesday, saying the 30 approvals had exceeded the constitutionally required two-thirds majority of the 36 state legislatures. He explained that the constitutional amendment process involved three stages: passage by the National Assembly, approval by at least two-thirds of the State Houses of Assembly and presidential assent.

According to him, the National Assembly had fulfilled its responsibility by passing the bill and transmitting it to all 36 State Houses of Assembly for consideration and approval. Bamidele said: “Let me explain again, for the avoidance of doubt, three keywords are used in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999, as amended. The first word is passage, the second word is approval and the third word is assent.

“The reason the writers of our Constitution, our forefathers, put all these specific words is to ensure that no part of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria can be easily amended without the buying in of all the critical stakeholders at all levels of governance.” He said the requirement was designed to ensure that major constitutional changes were not imposed without the participation of critical stakeholders across the federation.

The Senate Leader stressed that the 30 approvals already received were above the constitutional threshold of 24 states, describing the development as evidence of considerable support for the proposed reform among elected representatives. “Two things that need to be emphasised here is that we needed two-thirds of the states at the very least for this to pass, and already two-thirds will be 24.

So, as of yet, we already got 30 states, showing the popularity of this bill among Nigerians through the elected representatives in the State Houses of Assembly,” he said. The 30 states that have approved the proposal are Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Borno, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Ekiti, Enugu, Gombe, Imo, Jigawa, Kaduna, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Lagos, Nasarawa, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Plateau, Rivers, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe and Zamfara.

The six states whose formal responses were still being awaited were Kano, Cross River, Abia, Niger, Benue and Oyo. Bamidele, however, said the National Assembly was still expecting the outstanding submissions to enable it to conclude the process. He said the intention was to give all 36 state legislatures the opportunity to formally communicate their positions on the proposed constitutional amendment, whether in support or opposition.

According to him, the Clerk to the National Assembly had written to the state assemblies on October 15, requesting their decisions within the stipulated period. “We believe that the remaining six states will still get back to the National Assembly before next week Monday, which is the deadline,” he added. Meanwhile, the Deputy President of the Senate and Chairman of the Senate Committee on Constitution Review, Senator Jibrin Barau (APC, Kano North), informed his colleagues that Kano State had sent its response and that the communication was expected to reach the National Assembly shortly.

The proposed amendment is part of efforts to decentralise Nigeria’s security architecture by providing a constitutional framework for individual states to establish their own police services. The proposal has remained a major issue in national discussions on how to address the country’s security challenges and whether policing responsibilities should remain concentrated at the federal level.

With 30 states having approved the amendment, the proposal has crossed the required state-level threshold, leaving the outstanding formal responses and presidential assent as the next stages in the process.