The house of representatives will vote on a constitutional amendment bill seeking to establish state police on Thursday.
While speaking with newsmen on Wednesday in Abuja, Benjamin Kalu, deputy speaker of the house of representatives and chairman of the constitution review committee, urged all lawmakers to attend Thursday’s plenary to participate in the vote.
Currently, the central authority on the police and other government security services established by law is the federal government.
But the proposed legislation seeks to move such powers in section 214 (c) from the exclusive list to the concurrent list, to empower both the national assembly and houses of assembly of states to legislate on police and other security matters.
Kalu, who was flanked by members of the constitution amendment panel, said the legislature must deploy constitutional and legislative tools to address insecurity and close existing gaps in the country’s security architecture.
He said while the national assembly would continue to engage security chiefs, lawmakers have decided to prioritise constitutional amendments aimed at tackling insecurity, particularly the establishment of state police.
According to him, the parliament has been working on the proposed amendment and hopes it will improve response time to security threats.
“Hope is coming. By tomorrow, we will be amending the constitution by prioritising state police. We will vote on state police. Nobody is stopping it,” he said.
Renewed incidents of insecurity across the country have reignited calls for the establishment of state police.
On Tuesday, the lower legislative chamber summoned service chiefs and Nuhu Ribadu, national security adviser (NSA), to appear before the parliament over a spike in insecurity nationwide.
In December, President Bola Tinubu expressed confidence that the creation of state police would improve security in the country.
To scale through, the bill requires approval by a two-thirds majority in both chambers of the national assembly—specifically, at least 73 senators and 240 members of the house of representatives—followed by ratification by a simple majority in at least 24 of the 36 state houses of assembly.
