The National Policing Bill is 90 per cent ready for transmission to the National Assembly, with the Federal Government expecting to submit it within two weeks, Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, has said....
The National Policing Bill is 90 per cent ready for transmission to the National Assembly, with the Federal Government expecting to submit it within two weeks, Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, has said.
Gbajabiamila, who chairs the Presidential Working Group on Policing Reform, disclosed this on Thursday while briefing journalists after a steering committee meeting at the State House, Abuja.
He said the committee would hold at least one more meeting to address outstanding issues before transmitting the bill to the National Assembly.
“The National Policing Bill is more or less ready for transmission to the National Assembly. We will probably have one more meeting after this to cross the t’s and dot the i’s and make sure every area is covered. So, we are 90 per cent ready,” he said.
Gbajabiamila added that state governors had raised a few observations that would be addressed before the bill was finalised.
“The governors have one or two observations, and we should be ready in about a week or so,” he said.
He described the proposed legislation as “the most consequential Bill of the administration so far”, noting that the working group’s steering committee had been deliberating on the reforms since August 3.
On concerns over the pace of state-level approval of the Sixth Constitution Alteration Bill to establish state police, Gbajabiamila expressed confidence that the process would receive broad support.
He was responding to reports that only about six states had passed the constitutional amendment out of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory.
The President’s Chief of Staff said there was a national consensus on the need for the reforms and expressed optimism that states would support the process.
“I see no reason why anyone will want to have a rethink on it,” he said.
The meeting was attended by Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum and Kwara State Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq; Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun; Kaduna State Governor Uba Sani; and Inspector-General of Police, Tunji Disu.
The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice was represented by the Solicitor-General and Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Justice, Beatrice Jedy-Agba.
Other participants included former Justice Abdullahi Liman, Chairman of the Policy Advisory Committee; Professor Olu Ogunsakin, Head of the Nigeria Police Reform Secretariat; and presidential and security officials involved in the reform process.
The proposed National Policing Bill is part of the Federal Government’s broader efforts to reform policing, while the separate constitutional amendment seeks to provide the legal framework for the establishment of state police.