During the plenary held on Tuesday 20th, 2024, members of the house of representatives passed for second reading the bill to setup state police in the country.

The bill, which has 14 sponsors including Benjamin Kalu, the deputy speaker of the house, aims to change the appropriate sections of the 1999 constitution to allow states to create their own law enforcement agencies.

In place of Speaker Abbas Tajudeen, Kalu encouraged lawmakers to put Nigerians’ safety above political objectives during Tuesday’s plenary session of the House. Lawmakers took turns contributing to the topic in the legislative chamber.

Following the suggestion made between President Bola Tinubu and state governors at the Aso Rock Villa, the Federal Government recently hinted at the possibility of adopting state police.

Also speaking, Babajimi Benson (APC, Lagos) said, “It is the job of the police to maintain law and order. We have a population of over 200m people but we have a police strength that is less than 400,000. State Police should be created to address the internal security challenges of Nigeria.”

Senator Shehu Sani, a former lawmaker and social critic, also characterized the proposed creation of state police in the country as both an illusion and a potential cause for disorder.

He said, “The state police will be used by the governors to persecute the opposition,to harass ‘non indigenes’,to rig elections and to counter the federal police in cases of conflict of interest between the federal government and the state.”

Amidst these controversy about the creation of state police, house of representatives members has passed the bill for second reading.