Despite 25 State Houses of Assembly endorsing the State Police Bill, persistent fears over political interference, human rights violations and weak accountability have raised questions about whether the proposed safeguards can protect citizens from abuse or remain largely theoretical.
Although the endorsements have met the two-thirds threshold required for the constitutional amendment to advance, the proposed reform faces a critical test: whether its safeguards can withstand pressure from powerful political officeholders.
Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele has defended the reform as a necessary response to worsening insecurity, insisting that adequate protections have been incorporated into the legislative framework. Human rights advocates, however, warn that governors could turn state police into instruments of political control.
Their concerns centre on whether independent commissions would have the financial autonomy, institutional independence and political protection to investigate misconduct involving governors and senior government officials. Legislative confirmation of appointments, they argue, could also offer limited protection where the ruling party controls the state assembly and partisan interests influence decisions.
As the legislative process advances through further consideration, harmonisation and consultations involving relevant committees, the Attorney-General of the Federation and the National Assembly, the effectiveness of these safeguards remains central to the proposed restructuring of Nigeria’s internal security architecture.
The next stages, including consideration of the draft National Policing Bill, 2026, and 29 consequential amendment bills, will help determine how federal and state police services relate to one another and what mechanisms will hold state police accountable.
THE Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives and Chairman of the House Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution, Benjamin Kalu, yesterday confirmed that 24 State Houses of Assembly had passed the bill seeking to establish state police.
(Ondo State subsequently passed the bill, bringing the number of states that had endorsed it to 25.)
The National Assembly may give the bill final passage when plenary resumes between tomorrow and Thursday, following the receipt of responses from the state legislatures.
A constitutional amendment requires the approval of at least two-thirds of the 36 State Houses of Assembly, representing 24 states.
In a post on his verified X account, Kalu said the passage of the bill by the state assemblies would bring policing closer to the people.
He described the development as a “major milestone for Nigeria’s security architecture and constitutional reform”.
“State Police will bring policing closer to the people, improve local intelligence gathering, speed up response to threats, and let states design security strategies for their own unique challenges,” he said.
Kalu commended the State Houses of Assembly for their commitment to the process and thanked President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for his leadership and support for the reform.
He also urged the state assemblies to extend similar support to other constitutional amendment bills to be transmitted to them.
The states that had passed the bill as of yesterday included Adamawa, Delta, Edo, Kwara, Nasarawa, Ogun, Osun, Enugu, Anambra, Imo, Ekiti, Kebbi, Akwa Ibom, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers, Taraba, Zamfara, Bayelsa, Benue, Cross River, Abia, Yobe and Kaduna.
States yet to pass the bill as of yesterday were Lagos, Ebonyi, Kogi, Niger, Borno, Gombe, Bauchi, Jigawa, Katsina, Kano and Sokoto.
Lawyers raise concerns over state police guardrails, legal process
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Dr Biodun Layonu, said any alteration to the state police bill after its approval by the State Houses of Assembly would require the document to be returned to the states for fresh consideration.
He said the bill should ordinarily be transmitted to the President for assent, having been harmonised by the National Assembly and subsequently approved by the state legislatures.
According to him, any further alteration, however minor, would amount to another amendment requiring the consent of the state assemblies.
“If it is true that further alterations have been made to the bill after the states approved it, even if such alterations involve only the insertion of a comma, in my opinion, the bill should be returned to the states for approval.
“This is because what is being presented to the President for assent must be the same document that the National Assembly passed and the states approved. If any alteration is made, it means the bill has been amended again, and it should be returned to the states to determine whether they agree with the changes.
“It is possible that some states may not agree with the alterations,” he said.
On the legal concerns surrounding the implementation of state police and measures to prevent abuse by governors, Layonu said he would need to study the bill before offering recommendations.
“I have not read the provisions of the bill thoroughly enough to offer any views, opinions or recommendations. I will need to study its provisions before I can comment on those issues,” he said.
A Lagos-based lawyer, Dr Yemi Omodele, said concerns about the extent of governors’ control over state police and the potential for abuse should have been adequately addressed during the committee stage and by the State Houses of Assembly.
He expressed optimism that the constitutional process would soon be concluded, noting that the required threshold for the proposed amendment had been met.
“The issue of state police in Nigeria will soon be settled, as the constitutional requirements for the proposed amendment have been met. Any further amendments or adjustments to the bill will only serve to perfect its provisions.
“Once the process is concluded and the bill is returned to the National Assembly for final passage and subsequently forwarded to the President for assent, it will become an Act,” he said.
However, human rights advocate Kabir Akingbolu warned that state police might fail to achieve their intended objectives unless the powers of governors were checked.
He said the concurrence of two-thirds of the State Houses of Assembly to establish state police was not the end of the process, as several constitutional requirements and operational issues remained to be addressed.
Akingbolu said the Constitution must be amended to move security and policing from the Exclusive Legislative List to either the Concurrent Legislative List or the Residual List, thereby providing a constitutional basis for state police.
He said questions about the proposed system’s organisational structure, command hierarchy, funding, personnel welfare and oversight mechanisms required clear answers.
“Once that is done, several questions must be addressed. What will be the organisational structure of the state police? Will they be subject to a federal agency, including the Nigeria Police Force, or will they operate independently? Who will head the police command in each state? What will be the salary structure, and how will personnel be treated? Will they be subject to the rules, guidelines and control of the Police Service Commission?” he asked.
He also questioned whether state police commands would operate independently or remain subordinate to the federal police, arguing that the distinction would determine the extent of their autonomy.
“If state police remain subordinate to the federal police, then, strictly speaking, what we have cannot be described as state police,” he said.
Akingbolu warned that allowing state police to operate autonomously under state governments without adequate safeguards could expose them to political abuse.
He compared the risk to concerns surrounding State Independent Electoral Commissions, arguing that governors could turn state police into instruments of political vendetta against opponents.
“Governors in Nigeria are already very powerful. It is difficult to find many countries in the world where governors wield as much power as they do in Nigeria. Our Constitution empowers them to the extent that they can often do and undo things with little or no effective restraint.
“Therefore, unless the powers of governors are curtailed, state police may not work as intended. If state police are established as truly independent outfits with no control from the centre, I can tell you that governors may abuse them and turn them into instruments of political vendetta against their opponents. Before we know it, we could find ourselves operating like a pariah state,” he said.
He added that some degree of federal oversight would be necessary to prevent disorder and ensure accountability across the policing system.
“I want to emphasise that it is not yet Uhuru. We may not have reached the promised land regarding state police, although we have taken a step in the right direction. I do not think state police alone will solve our security problems, but they could help reduce insecurity,” he said.
Akingbolu also noted that improved government allocations and revenue would be important in ensuring that state police personnel received adequate remuneration.
He said the control mechanisms and organisational structure of the proposed system required careful consideration, adding that striking a balance between state autonomy and federal oversight would be crucial.
“There will be a very thin line between the complete autonomy of state police and their interdependence with the national or federal police. Each arrangement has its advantages and disadvantages.
“Full state control may offer certain benefits, but it also carries a high risk of abuse by state governments. Federal control, on the other hand, could result in overlapping functions,” he said.
Akingbolu urged those responsible for designing the system to work towards a practical arrangement that would address these concerns.
He also recommended studying the American model and those of other countries to identify lessons that could help Nigeria establish an effective state policing system.
Constitutional lawyer, Professor Auwalu Hamisu Yadudu, said the National Assembly must address critical issues in the proposed State Police Bill to ensure its effective implementation.
The former legal adviser to the late Head of State, General Sani Abacha, said the bill could proceed to passage and presidential assent following the concurrence of the required number of State Houses of Assembly, but stressed that several operational challenges remained unresolved.
Yadudu, a former dean of the Faculty of Law and Deputy Vice-Chancellor of Bayero University, Kano, said the practicality and workability of the proposed state policing system would depend on how these issues were addressed.
“There are many tricky and challenging matters of detail that would need to be addressed in another Act of the National Assembly to make [the system] implementable,” he said.
He identified the regulation of command, control and operations between federal and state police services as one of the major challenges, alongside the management of relationships between police institutions in different states.
He also questioned the respective roles of federal and state police in enforcing federal and state laws.
“Currently, the police prosecute cases in courts regarding the violation of both federal enactments and state laws. What becomes of such powers and ongoing investigations and proceedings?” he asked.
Similarly, Professor of Political Science at Bayero University, Kano, Kamilu Sani Fagge, warned that meeting the constitutional threshold for the proposed amendment did not mean the process had been concluded.
He said several contentious issues surrounding state police remained unresolved, adding that some governors might resist aspects of the proposed arrangement because of their political interests and relationships with individuals within their states.
Fagge also raised concerns over allegations that the bill had been altered after its approval by the state assemblies, warning that such claims could generate further controversy and undermine confidence in the process.
He urged the Federal Government to ensure that the version approved by the state assemblies was circulated among them to address concerns over possible alterations and reduce tensions.
The political scientist also questioned the urgency surrounding the reform ahead of the next election cycle, warning that accelerating the process could heighten suspicions about the government’s motives.
“I think fast-tracking the entire process before the election will raise concerns, the same concerns being raised over the years, and that will compound the fears of many state governors and many people,” he said.
He added that, particularly in northern Nigeria, the pace of the process and allegations of manipulation had raised concerns about whether dissenting views were receiving adequate consideration.
Fagge called for an inclusive debate in which supporters and opponents of state police would have equal opportunities to present their positions.
He argued that the reform should be presented as a national initiative rather than one driven by a particular region, noting that perceptions of regional interests could deepen divisions and weaken public confidence.
For Dr Rommy, President of Lawyers Alert, a legal expert and former Federal Commissioner of the Police Service Commission (PSC), the debate over state police has been hampered by a top-down approach that overlooks local realities.
He said: “Nigeria is a very complex society. It is dynamic in the sense that every 100 kilos or less, you meet a totally different set of persons and people. The circumstances and contexts are different,” Rommy explained. “So, saying state police as a blanket through public hearings is not enough. We must come down to where state police do matter: in the rural areas, in the local governments, in hamlets. That is where it does matter.”
He argued that although State Houses of Assembly are exercising their constitutional mandate by voting to endorse or reject the bill, the process remains incomplete without structured avenues for ordinary citizens, particularly those most affected by insecurity, to contribute to shaping the proposed system.
“Public safety,” Rommy emphasised, “is not merely the absence of violence and conflict; it is a holistic state of being where people genuinely feel secure and maintain deep, abiding trust in security institutions.
“This trust deficit cannot be bridged by parliamentary fiat alone. It demands an inclusive architecture rooted in existing legal frameworks — specifically, the community policing provisions enshrined within the Police Act of 2020.”
Dr Raphael Gabriel Okpogidi, a legal practitioner, law lecturer and law librarian at Reverend Father Moses Osu Adasu University, Makurdi, also expressed concerns about constitutional safeguards and institutional independence.
He said fears that state governors might use state police against political opponents were valid, given Nigeria’s volatile political climate. However, he argued that the solution was not to abandon state policing but to establish robust institutional safeguards against political interference.
“The best way around it is not really saying it will be used against political opponents, but let these institutions be established in a manner that they will be solely independent; even though they are operating as state police, they’ll be independent of the governor, they’ll be independent of the state house of assembly, and of course they’ll be able to operate autonomously,” Okpogidi argued.
Experts demand safeguards against govs’ control, warn of flawed implementation
NATIONAL Coordinator of the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), Emmanuel Onwubiko, welcomed the prospect of state police but warned that the system must be structured to prevent governors from exercising excessive control over police operations, funding and appointments.
Onwubiko, a former National Commissioner of the National Human Rights Commission, said the establishment of state police presented an opportunity to address the limitations of Nigeria’s centralised policing system, which he described as ineffective and plagued by corruption.
However, he maintained that the National Assembly must go beyond general assurances by establishing clear legal mechanisms to protect state police from executive interference.
He proposed that state police services should enjoy operational and financial independence, with their funding protected through a first-line charge on federal allocations or an equivalent legally guaranteed arrangement.
According to him, such a funding mechanism would reduce the risk of governors using budgetary control to pressure police commissioners and other senior officers into acting in their political interests.
He also advocated the establishment of quasi-independent State Police Service Commissions, insulated from the executive arms of state governments, to oversee appointments, discipline and removals.
Drawing a parallel with the judiciary, Onwubiko argued that governors should not be allowed to remove police commissioners arbitrarily without an independent disciplinary process.
He warned that without such protections, police officers could be pressured into obeying unlawful directives for fear of losing their positions or access to the resources needed to perform their duties.
“The state police must never be converted to political parties’ armed sections in the different states and must not be used against political opponents of the state governors,” he said.
Onwubiko further argued that state police must operate as people-owned institutions, backed by adequate funding and competitive remuneration to motivate personnel to perform their duties professionally.
For his part, retired Assistant Inspector-General of Police Tony Olofo ruled out the likelihood of a successful and efficient state policing system, arguing that the process lacked sincerity of purpose.
While acknowledging the merits of state policing, Olofo expressed concern that its promoters were merely playing to the gallery to gain political mileage.
He told The Guardian that the authorities needed to examine the reasons for the failure of the national policing system, provide answers and develop solutions before implementing the proposed reform.
According to him, “The idea is noble and ought to have commenced like yesterday because what we currently have is a national policing system which we all think has failed us, therefore we need to adopt the state policing.
“But there is something missing, we have not really asked ourselves why the national policing is failing, we have refused to do that, rather we are cherry picking, instead of asking why we are failing.
“In the days of President Olusegun Obasanjo, I had the opportunity of being called upon and asked whether the current policing was sustainable, and I gave them my perspective. Now, we are dancing towards state policing, and the politicians believe it is convenient for them to do it now because they know they will have the listening ears of the people because of the state of insecurity.
“The fact is that the economy will not get anywhere in the face of insecurity; therefore, we need adequate security, but jumping into state policing without asking why the national policing has failed is a joke.”
He added: “Until the government of the day asks the necessary questions and attempts solutions, we will not make meaningful headway. I have also told my military counterparts not to jump into creating too many institutions, so that they don’t end like the police that had Road Safety, Civil Defence, etc., but at the end we are where we are today.”
Olofo emphasised that poor welfare for police officers, inadequate training and a lack of essential working tools had contributed to the failure of the national policing system. He also expressed concern that states rushing to adopt the system could leave the financial burdens to their successors because of inadequate planning.
He further questioned whether the time allocated for training officers would be sufficient, warning that the process appeared to be deliberately designed to fail.
A political scientist and researcher in international relations, Dr Fyneface Dumnamene Fyneface, said the prevailing security challenges across the country required collective action and measures to strengthen security operations at the state level.
He said that, following consideration of the proposal by the relevant National Assembly committee and the Federal Government’s position on state policing, state lawmakers should support its passage and implementation.
He therefore urged state assemblies to expedite action on the proposed state police legislation when it was transmitted to them for consideration.
According to him, the establishment of state police would enhance collaboration between state-level security operatives and the Nigeria Police Force, improve intelligence gathering and enable faster responses to security threats.
He expressed optimism that the initiative, if properly implemented, would help curb kidnapping, the abduction of schoolchildren and other criminal activities across the country.
Similarly, a school proprietor, Mrs Elizabeth Woke, said the move had become necessary as school administrators, teachers, parents and pupils increasingly lived in fear amid rising insecurity, particularly the abduction of schoolchildren.
Woke said recurring school kidnappings had heightened anxiety among parents and threatened the safe learning environment that schools were expected to provide. She stressed that governments at all levels should prioritise school safety and strengthen security around educational institutions to restore public confidence.
Framework review to end Oct 30, states must meet standards, says Ogunsakin
THE Director-General of the National Institute of Police Studies and head of the Nigeria Police Reform Secretariat, Prof Olu Ogunsakin, said the proposed framework was undergoing a final review, which was expected to be completed by October 30 before further deliberations and submission to the President.
Ogunsakin said recommendations from state governments were being considered to address their concerns and secure wider acceptance of the framework. However, he stressed that approval of the constitutional amendment would not automatically qualify every state to establish its own police service, as each would have to meet prescribed institutional and governance standards.
“You cannot have a perfect bill, but in a democracy, everybody must have a say. That gives them a sense of ownership,” he said, explaining that the consultations were intended to allow states to identify gaps and propose changes before the framework was finalised.