The Senate has reacted to criticisms that trailed the passage of a Bill to establish a State Police structure in the country, explaining that it “is purely a child of necessity and not of political expediency as well as a product of national consensus and not of cynicism.”
Leader of the Senate, Opeyemi Bamidele in a statement released by his Directorate of Media and Public Affairs on Sunday, explained that the process of accommodating state police in the country’s governance structure did not start recently.
Among others, Presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) Peter Obi has wondered at the speed with which both houses of the federal legislature had passed the Bill to establish state police and said the move was suspicious given its nearness to the general elections.
He also called in the National Assembly to suspend the process till after the election, arguing that such a Bill needed wider consultations to allow for inputs from more stakeholders.
However, despite the dissenting voices, the Senate defended the passage of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (Alteration) (State Police) Bill 2026, noting that the legislative initiative was of urgent public importance and could not, and should not, take a back seat to anyone’s political aspirations in light of the stark realities facing the country.
Bamidele said observations had shown that Nigerians largely welcome the passage of the bill with a conviction that it would significantly de-escalate the country’s security conditions at the sub-national level.
He explained that the state police proposal was part of the memoranda submitted to the Senate Adhoc Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution, adding that the memorandum underwent a rigorous process and multi-tiered consultations across the federation due to its sensitive nature.
During the process, Bamidele observed that the National Assembly broadly consulted the Executive, the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF), the Conference of Speakers of the State Legislatures of Nigeria, and the police top brass, among others.
In July 2025, according to him, the National Assembly conducted public hearings in all geopolitical zones, and the participants overwhelmingly approved it.
“At each level of our consultation, nearly all stakeholders embraced the state police bill in the light of stark realities we are facing today,” he disclosed.
Bamidele explained the contributions of the police to the process of enacting the constitution alteration bill, which, according to him, were among the highly vital recommendations that could help the National Assembly develop accountability and oversight mechanisms to prevent the abuse of state police by some political actors.
The Senate leader added that the resolve of the Nigeria Police “to support the bill obviously highlights its strategic national significance to deal with insecurity at local and state levels.”
Beyond police input, Bamidele further explained that the bill was subjected to intense debate in the Senate and the House of Representatives.
He said: “Though the APC is the majority, there are members of opposition parties that exercised their discretion in favour of the bill, mainly in the national interest and not on a parochial basis. In the Senate, for instance, 84 out of 109 members voted clause by clause in support of the bill. This accounted for 77.06 per cent approval at the Senate alone.”
(Ripples)
