Babajide Sanwo-Olu: “I commend the Senate for passing the constitutional amendment bill to establish state police across Nigeria. This is a bold and necessary response to a long-standing national conversation on how we protect our communities.
My appreciation also goes to His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR . This reform is a direct result of his visionary leadership and commitment to restructuring our security architecture.
“He has championed this cause since his days as Governor of Lagos State, knowing that a safer Nigeria requires empowering authorities who actually know their terrain.
“His resolve kept this conversation alive and brought us to the doorstep of a reform whose time has come.
“For us in Lagos, our security needs are unique, dynamic and constantly evolving. We know our streets and our neighborhoods better than anyone else. This progress finally gives us the opportunity to build a system that is fully responsive to our local realities.
“There is still work to be done but this is major progress toward a safer Nigeria.”
The Nigerian Senate has passed the State Police Bill, a major constitutional amendment that allows states to establish and operate their own police forces alongside the federal police in order to improve local security and tackle rising insecurity across the country.
The bill was approved on Wednesday after a clause-by-clause review and a manual voting process in which more than two-thirds of senators voted in support. Senate President Godswill Akpabio announced its passage following the presentation of a report by the Senate Committee on the Review of the Constitution, chaired by Deputy Senate President Barau Jibrin.
The proposed legislation introduces a state policing system that will operate alongside the existing federal police structure, ending the Federal Government’s exclusive control over policing.
Under the bill, each state police service will be headed by a Commissioner of Police appointed by the governor and confirmed by the State House of Assembly, while the federal police will remain under the leadership of the Inspector-General of Police.
