Follow Us on Google
The Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria passed the bill for the establishment of state police on 24 June 2026. This followed the earlier approval of the bill by the House of Representatives some days prior to that. The Senate support of the bill came after an executive bill for the creation of state police had been forwarded by President Bola Tinubu. Within seventy two hours of the submission of the executive bill, the Senate passed it. This bill has been advocated for by Nigerians since 1999, but the demand reached a high pitch from 2015 when the security situation started becoming unbearable.
Terrorism landed on the shores of Nigeria in 2009 when Boko Haram was born to chastise Nigerians with serpents and scorpions. This new phenomenon was born in Maiduguri, one of the most peaceful cities in Nigeria before then. Due to the incompetence and corruption of the leadership class since then, terrorism metastasised and spread across the whole nation. Our security agencies have been overwhelmed by the activities of bandits, kidnappers, armed robbers, and terrorists. They are undermanned, underequipped and under-motivated. They are under the exclusive power and authority of one person: the President.
I have been in the forefront for this agitation for state police. The main reason is that Nigeria is a big country both in terms of land mass and population. It is multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, multi-religious, and multi-cultural. Due to its large land mass, and fewer number of security agencies, a lot of spaces have become ungoverned. On the arrival of terrorism in Nigeria, those spaces become ungovernable. The police strength now is about 370,000 personnel. The population of Nigeria today is about 210 million. The ratio of police to citizens falls short of the United Nations standard.
This meant that successive Presidents were becoming incapable of securing lives and property with the existing security apparatus. The multi-dimension of the Nigerian society implies that a Christian from the South-South State of Calabar with his knowledge of Efik will find it more difficult to adapt to the policing culture and niceties required to operate in a deeply Muslim dominated State of Sokoto with its Hausa/Fulani language and culture. Good policing thrives on good intelligence gathering. Our Christian Efik brother from the South-South stands no chance to gather any reasonable intelligence from Sokoto indigenes who would most likely view him with suspicion and cast him out as an unbeliever. Effective policing, therefore, is local.
It was a big relief to witness the passing of the creation of state police bill in the National Assembly. As I argued in my Channels TV interview, on the 8 June 2026, the starting point of the creation of state police is the National Assembly because it is the only institution bestowed with the power to make laws. There is only one police force, which is centralised, because our Constitution demands it to be so in section 214. The first step therefore is to amend the relevant sections to allow for state police. It is pertinent to note that the law is not meant for the federal police to transfer the function of policing to the state, but for the federal police to share policing function with the state police.
In this regard, some provisions in the amendment should be nipped in the bud before even allowed to see the light of the day. It is meaningless to determine that the offence of terrorism should be a federal crime reserved for the federal police. Crime is an offence against the state (both federal and state) and every tier of the police force must be equipped to fight crime. There is nothing wrong in designating crimes into federal or state for the sake of litigation, but not for the sake of policing. Terrorism may be designated as a federal crime to allow the Attorney-General of the Federation to handle its prosecution because of the international dimension of modern day terrorism. The states may not have the commensurate reach to diligently prosecute terrorism-related crimes. However, when it comes to fighting terrorism, it shall be the duty of all police forces, and indeed, all Nigerians to participate in it.
Other News
The strongest argument against state police is the possibility of abuse, especially the harassment of political opponents. Let me state categorically that some governors will surely abuse state police. The reason for this assurance is that federal police and security agencies have been used at different times against political opponents. In 1980, Alhaji Abdurrahman Shugaba Darman was an active member of the Great Nigeria Peoples Party (GNPP). He won an election into the Borno State House of Assembly and emerged as the Majority Leader of the House of Assembly. He was perceived as a vocal opponent of the ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN). One fateful day, on 24 January 1980, without any judicial pronouncement, the Federal Minister of Internal Affairs bundled him and deported him to Chad Republic on the pretence that he was not a citizen of Nigeria.
Also, some powerful political figures in some states have used the federal police to intimidate some governors, and some governors have used the federal police to intimidate some political opponents in their states. Governor Chris Ngige of Anambra State was kidnapped and falsely imprisoned for some hours, while his resignation was purportedly read on the floor of the State Assembly, in an apparent coup d’etat against his government. The political actors that dethroned him used the instrumentality of the federal police to carry out this act. An Assistant Inspector General of Police was eventually used as a scapegoat to assuage the cry of Nigerians over the brazen act of intimidating a sitting governor. It took the intervention of statesmen like Atiku Abubakar, the then Vice President of Nigeria to save him from detention and restore him to his post as governor. It can be seen that the abuse of state police is not unique to the state police. The federal police can also be used for the same purpose.
The abuse of state police cannot be compared with the abuse Nigerians are being subjected to by the terrorists and bandits. These criminals are so heartless that a woman was kidnapped with her three children. Two died in her presence during their captivity and she was compelled to use her hands to bury them. A teacher was beheaded in Oyo State and his students and principal kidnapped. They are still in the forests till date. In Katsina, men voluntarily surrender their wives and daughters to bandits for their sexual satisfaction to discourage the bandits from kidnapping and attacking them. In Plateau and Benue States, people are massacred everywhere and everyday. So also in Borno, Kebbi, Kwara, and almost in all the states of the federation. In all these instances, the victims of these wicked activities of the bandits do not have remedies in law. Punishment of a bandit by hanging will never bring back to life the people who died in their captivity or bring back the dignity of the women who are constantly being raped in their captivity.
Contrast this with the state police. If the state police is abused by the governor or his agents, the victims are entitled to damages before a competent court of law. They are also entitled to use legitimate means to forestall the abuse of their rights and privileges. For instance, when Alhaji Shugaba was deported to the Republic of Chad by the government of the NPN during 1999, the Federal Court of Appeal held that the deportation was an infringement of his freedom of movement guaranteed by section 38 of the 1979 Constitution (the equivalent of section 41 of the 1999 constitution) as it was not established that he was not a Nigerian citizen. The court returned him to a heroic welcome back to Nigeria. If Shugaba were kidnapped by bandits and terrorists, he may not have made it back alive. For the avoidance of doubt, Major General Rabe Abubakar was kidnapped by terrorists and died in their captivity.
State police is an idea whose time has come. However, state police will flourish better in a society with an independent legislature and judiciary. In 1979, when Shugaba was deported without reason, the independent judiciary came to his rescue. An independent judiciary is important to regulate the relationship between the federal police and state police so that the federal police do not swallow the state police. It is very concerning that Nigerians have been slaughtered like chickens since Tinubu came in as President, yet the National Assembly couldn’t on their own amend the Constitution and relevant laws to give us state police. They had to wait for Tinubu to order them to do it through executive bill before they woke up from their slumber. They passed Tinubu’s bill within 72 hours of legislative days.
The danger here is that Tinubu will certainly skew the laws to his favour and indirectly maintain his stranglehold on the state police. The State Houses of Assembly should rise up and amend some of the clauses that tilt the establishment of state police in favour of Tinubu retaining the absolute residual powers to command the force. World over, the state police is commanded wholly by the Governors subject only to the law, not the caprices of the President. Federalism demands that each tier of government should enjoy autonomy in the conduct of its affairs. For state police to function optimally, we need an independent legislature and judiciary to check and balance any executive presidential incursion into the operations of state police. Otherwise, we will be back to square one of motion without movement. Whereas some guardrails are needed to check the abuse of state police, the guardrails must not be used to encroach on the autonomy of the state police in carrying out its duties as guaranteed by law.
