By James Adamu
The constitutional amendment to create state police has cleared its final legislative hurdle and now sits with President Bola Tinubu, after 30 of Nigeria’s 36 state assemblies endorsed the proposal.
The bill’s transmission to the presidency was disclosed at Wednesday’s Senate plenary, where Deputy Senate President Jibrin Barau read out a communication from the Clerk to the National Assembly, Kamoru Ogunlana. The clerk’s office confirmed it had logged approvals from 29 states by close of business on Tuesday, prompting National Assembly leadership to forward the bill to the president the following day.
Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele then listed the approving states: Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Borno, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Ekiti, Enugu, Gombe, Imo, Jigawa, Kaduna, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Lagos, Nasarawa, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Plateau, Rivers, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe and Zamfara.
At 30 states, the bill comfortably surpasses the two-thirds threshold of 24 assemblies required under the constitution.
Bamidele walked lawmakers through the amendment’s three-step path — National Assembly passage, ratification by at least two-thirds of state assemblies, and presidential signature — noting that the broad state-level backing was intended to give constitutional changes legitimacy across all tiers of government. He called the outcome a win for democracy.
The Senate had earlier set 15 November as the deadline for the six remaining assemblies to submit their decisions. Senate President Godswill Akpabio warned that any state failing to communicate by then would be treated as having withheld approval — a position the chamber adopted unanimously.
If signed, the amendment would alter the 1999 Constitution to allow states to operate their own police services, marking one of the most significant shifts in Nigeria’s security architecture in decades. Presidential assent is the last remaining step.
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