State police won’t be reduced to tools by governors

Reps rescind decision on state police bill

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The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Abbas Tajudeen, has said that the proposed state police would not be a tool of oppression in the hands of state governors if established.

Abbas gave the assurance on Tuesday while speaking at the opening of the National Assembly Open Week 2026, held in the main chamber of the House of Representatives. He stated that the state police law would have adequate safeguards to make abuse by state governors impossible.

This is as the House, at Tuesday’s plenary, rescinded its decision on the State Police Bill, which it passed on June 11, as part of the ongoing review of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

Thereafter, the Green Chamber introduced a fresh bill forwarded by President Bola Tinubu on the alteration of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) to create a framework for the establishment of state police.

The new bill was taken through first and second readings and referred to the House Committee on Constitution Review for further legislative action.

The Speaker, while speaking at the Open Week, explained that the Executive version of the State Police Bill, which was transmitted to the parliament by President Tinubu, was “more robust and more comprehensive than the version this House earlier passed.”

According to him, “Nothing tests a government, or a parliament, so severely as the safety of the citizen. Let me speak plainly: our security forces are gaining ground, and we will not rest until every Nigerian is safe. Consider one event from only days ago that shows the courage of men and women who refuse to tire, retreat, or accept defeat.

“In Oyo State, forty-four of our citizens, schoolchildren and their teachers, were seized from their classrooms and taken into the forests. For weeks, the nation held its breath. Then, through a joint operation of our armed forces, our police, our intelligence services, our civil defence corps, and the local hunters and vigilantes who know that terrain, all forty-four were restored to freedom.

“Some of the gallant officers who entered the forest to secure their release did not return, and to them this nation owes a debt that words can never fully discharge. That rescue was not the product of chance. It was the fruit of every appropriation this House has fought to place in the hands of those who protect our children.

“Yet the deeper lesson of Oyo is that a nation of this magnitude cannot be policed in perpetuity from a single command in Abuja. On this question, this House has already acted. In the course of the constitutional reform ably led by our Deputy Speaker, this House passed a State Police Bill and placed the matter squarely before the nation. Tomorrow’s roundtable carries that work forward, in the open and before you.

“I am, indeed, able to share a development that speaks to the seriousness with which this administration regards the safety of Nigerians. His Excellency the President has now transmitted to the National Assembly an Executive version of the State Police Bill, one that is more robust and more comprehensive than the version this House earlier passed.”

Abbas, while promising that the House would expedite action on the state police bill transmitted by the President, noted that the proposed legislation would be subjected to proper scrutiny.

“To the thoughtful citizens and to the Members who have observed that they are yet to see the draft Bills and who fear that this matter is being settled beyond public view, I offer this reassurance: nothing here is concealed. The Bill will pass through Public Hearing and open scrutiny. And I give this assurance to every Nigerian: the framework will carry robust safeguards.

“A state must satisfy clear and demanding standards and safeguards before it may be entrusted with a police service. There will be accountability, the protection of fundamental human rights, and firm boundaries between federal and state authority, so that no state police force may ever be reduced to the private instrument of a governor.”