The House of Representatives on Thursday passed the State Police Bill, paving the way for a major overhaul of Nigeria’s policing structure through the decentralisation of law enforcement responsibilities.
The bill scaled through after an overwhelming majority of lawmakers voted in support of the proposal during plenary presided over by Speaker of the House, Tajudeen Abbas.
The decision followed growing calls for alternative security measures amid escalating cases of killings, kidnappings and bandit attacks across several parts of the country.
A total of 289 lawmakers voted in favour of the bill, while only one member opposed it. The Speaker abstained from the voting process.
The session witnessed some controversy before the exercise commenced. A member of the House, Bashir Zubairu from Kaduna State, raised concerns that lawmakers had only received the report prepared by the House Committee on Constitution Review shortly before the sitting.
According to him, members had not been given sufficient time to study the document before taking a position on such a significant constitutional matter.
“Mr Speaker, this document was only made available to lawmakers in the chambers, and we are yet to go through it. We cannot do justice to it because we have not gone through it,” Zubairu said.
However, the Speaker ruled the objection out of order, allowing deliberations to continue.
As Abbas proceeded through the clauses of the proposal, several lawmakers were heard raising points of order, but the process continued uninterrupted.
Before the vote, the Speaker informed members that the electronic voting system was not functioning, explaining that the exercise would instead be conducted based on attendance records.
With the bill now passed by the House, the proposal marks a significant step towards the creation of state police formations, a long-debated reform that supporters argue will strengthen local security, improve intelligence gathering and enhance rapid response to criminal activities.
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