ABUJA — The proposed establishment of state police services across Nigeria has secured critical legislative momentum after 28 State Houses of Assembly officially endorsed the constitutional amendment bill seeking to alter the 1999 Constitution.
The Clerk to the National Assembly, Kamoru Ogunlana, confirmed the milestone in an official statement issued in Abuja, revealing that verified approval documents received from state parliaments have surpassed the mandatory constitutional threshold.
Under Section 9 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended), any proposed alteration to the supreme law requires concurrence from at least two-thirds of the nation’s 36 state legislatures—translating to a minimum of 24 states.
The National Assembly had transmitted the alteration bill to the 36 state parliaments on September 16, following its passage by both chambers of the federal legislature.
Ogunlana stated that preliminary administrative verifications, including the auditing of official votes and proceedings from the state assemblies, confirmed that 28 states supported the creation of sub-national police forces alongside the existing federal structure.
He added that necessary administrative processes are currently underway to bundle the bill and transmit it to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for presidential assent, pursuant to the provisions of the Acts Authentication Act.
The legislative push for state police represents a long-sought policy shift aimed at restructuring Nigeria’s security framework to effectively tackle localized security threats, violent crime, and community-level insecurity.
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