The House of Representatives has approved a constitutional amendment bill seeking to establish state police across Nigeria, marking a significant step in efforts to reform the country’s security framework amid persistent insecurity.
The bill secured overwhelming support during Thursday’s plenary session, with 288 lawmakers voting in favour and only four opposing it.
Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, presided over the session.
Lawmakers adopted a voice and show-of-hands voting process after the Speaker informed members that the electronic voting system was not operational.
The vote came a day after the House devoted its plenary to extensive debate on the proposal.
The legislation seeks to create an additional layer of policing by allowing states to establish and operate their own police services.
It also provides constitutional safeguards, oversight structures, operational guidelines, and a clear division of responsibilities between federal and state policing authorities.
Ahead of the vote, the House released the final draft of the Constitution Alteration Bills, which include provisions designed to create a constitutional basis for state police and other proposed reforms.
In a statement issued earlier, House spokesman Akintunde Rotimi said the constitutional amendment proposals were the product of months of legislative work carried out by the House Committee on Constitution Review.
According to the statement, the committee considered numerous amendment requests submitted by lawmakers, government agencies, professional associations, civil society groups, traditional institutions and members of the public.
The review process also involved extensive consultations nationwide, including zonal and national public hearings, expert engagements, stakeholder meetings and town hall sessions conducted across the country’s six geopolitical zones.
The House said the consultations were aimed at ensuring broad public participation in the constitutional review exercise.
Concerns over insecurity have continued to dominate national discourse, with incidents of kidnapping, banditry and violent attacks reported in several parts of the country.
The proposal has also made progress in the Senate, where lawmakers passed the state police bill for a second reading.
However, further debate has been deferred, and the legislation has been referred to the Senate Committee on Constitutional Review for additional consideration.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio told lawmakers during plenary that voting on the measure would take place at a subsequent sitting.
Supporters of the proposal argue that the current centrally controlled policing structure has struggled to effectively address security challenges across the country.
They contend that state police would improve response times and strengthen local security management.
The debate has gained renewed attention following recent school abductions in parts of southwestern Nigeria, incidents that critics say exposed weaknesses in the existing security architecture.
Despite the growing support for state policing, some analysts and stakeholders have expressed concerns that granting governors control over state police forces could increase the risk of political abuse in a country where electoral and political contests are often fiercely contested.
For the constitutional amendment to take effect, the Senate must pass the bill, while at least two-thirds of the 36 state Houses of Assembly must also approve it.
