Senate Triggers Constitutional Process For State Police
The Nigerian Senate has formally commenced the constitutional process required for the establishment of state police, pledging full legislative backing to overhaul the country’s strained security architecture as banditry, kidnapping and violent crime continue to ravage communities nationwide.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Yemi Adaramodu, confirmed the development on Wednesday in an interview with The PUNCH, signalling that the Red Chamber was prepared to fast track the constitutional amendments required to birth state controlled police formations.
“The Senate is fully prepared to commence the constitutional processes for the establishment of state police, without delay. The legislature is desirous to support President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Nigerian public on this,” Adaramodu said.
He added that lawmakers would deploy every available legislative tool to ensure swift passage. “The Senate will ensure that necessary legislative stamina is accorded the establishment of state police, so as to keep Nigerians safe, secured and run out the rampaging bandits and other social marauders.”
The legislative move comes against a backdrop of mounting national outrage following the May 15 abduction of pupils and teachers from three schools in the Ahoro Esinle and Yawota communities of Oriire Local Government Area, Oyo State. Armed men invaded the schools, seized scores of pupils and staff, and killed two teachers in the process, an attack widely regarded as among the most consequential school invasions since the Chibok and Dapchi abductions in Nigeria’s northeast.
As lawmakers resumed plenary on Tuesday following the Sallah recess, the Senate condemned the assault and observed a one minute silence for the slain teachers. Senate President Godswill Akpabio described the incident as a tragedy that strikes at the heart of the nation’s future, arguing that attacks on schools amount to an assault on Nigeria’s collective humanity and reinforce the urgency of structural security reform.
The state police conversation is not new to Nigerian public discourse. Proponents, including successive committees of the National Economic Council and the 2014 National Conference, have long argued that decentralised policing would deepen intelligence gathering, strengthen community based security operations, and enable faster response to localised threats. Supporters maintain that state police formations would complement, rather than replace, federal agencies in confronting banditry, kidnapping, communal clashes and other violent crimes that have persisted across the North West, North Central and parts of the South.
Critics, however, have historically raised concerns about potential abuse by state governors, funding sustainability and the risk of political weaponisation, concerns that have repeatedly slowed previous reform efforts.
President Bola Tinubu has thrown his weight behind the reform on multiple occasions. During the Eid el Fitr visit by members of the National Assembly, the President formally requested that lawmakers expedite action on the constitutional process for the creation of state police. At a separate engagement with the 36 state governors, he assured that state policing “had come to stay,” a position widely interpreted as a decisive shift in federal posture on the long debated issue.
The current Nigeria Police Force, structured as a single centralised institution under Section 214 of the 1999 Constitution, has long been criticised as overstretched. With a personnel strength estimated at roughly 370,000 officers serving a population of more than 220 million, Nigeria falls significantly below the United Nations recommended ratio of one police officer to 450 citizens. Analysts and security stakeholders have repeatedly cited this gap as a major driver of the country’s security deficit.
If passed, the proposed constitutional amendments would mark the most significant restructuring of Nigeria’s policing framework since the dissolution of regional police formations in 1966.