KEY POINTS

• 28 state assemblies have approved the state police bill, above the 24 required.
• The National Assembly plans to send the bill to Tinubu within a week.
• Ex-police chief Mike Okiro urges safeguards against abuse by governors.

Nigeria’s National Assembly is set to send the state police bill to President Bola Tinubu for assent after 28 state legislatures approved it, clearing the constitutional threshold, Vanguard reported Wednesday.

Federal lawmakers plan to transmit the bill within the next week, according to the newspaper. Clerk of the National Assembly Kamoru Ogunlana said Tuesday that his office had received and verified reports from 28 state assemblies. That exceeds the two-thirds requirement of 24 states under Section 9 of the constitution. Vanguard put the number of approving states at no fewer than 30, although not all of those have been verified.

The bill, which seeks to create state police services, went to all 36 state assemblies on Sept. 16. States had 30 days, ending Oct. 15, to respond. Still, Ogunlana said his office will keep accepting reports until the bill goes to Tinubu. He also noted that Section 9 does not expressly require a third reading for a constitution alteration bill, unlike ordinary bills.

State police funding plan sought

Meanwhile, the presidency last week asked the Organized Private Sector to draw up a financing and implementation plan for the new system.

Chief of Staff Femi Gbajabiamila, who heads a committee on the reform, told the Nigerian Economic Summit in Abuja that insecurity is driving away investment, disrupting supply chains and delaying factory expansions. So he urged business leaders to engage governors and lawmakers.

Former police chief urges safeguards

Former Inspector-General of Police Mike Okiro backed the reform but called for protections against abuse by governors. He recalled how regional premiers in the First Republic used the police against the opposition.

Okiro proposed extending the tenure protections the inspector-general now enjoys to state police commissioners. Under his plan, removing a commissioner would require a two-thirds vote of the state assembly.

He also argued that states can afford the forces, noting that many already buy patrol vehicles and equipment for the police. Lagos, he said, has equipped its Rapid Response Squad for decades. “If a governor cannot pay teachers, he must still pay the police,” he said, adding that the federal government could step in to help states that struggle.

However, Okiro said the bill already bars governors from using state police for partisan, ethnic, religious or personal ends. It also lets the National Assembly set national minimum standards on recruitment, training and use of force, which states may raise but not lower.