NASS to get National Policing Bill in two weeks — Gbajabiamila

The Chief of Staff to the President and Chairman of the Working Group on the National Policing Bill, Honourable Femi Gbajabiamila, has said the proposed legislation will be forwarded to the National Assembly within two weeks.

Gbajabiamila made the disclosure on Thursday while speaking to journalists after the steering committee meeting at the State House in Abuja.

Describing it as ‘the most consequential Bill of the administration so far,’ he noted that it has undergone strenuous exercises in the last few weeks since the working group’s steering committee began deliberations last August.

He said: “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% ready.

“The governors have one or two observations, and we should be ready in about a week or so,” Gbajabiamila said.

Also speaking on the possibility of the states dragging their feet on the passage of the Sixth Constitution Alteration Bill (State Police), especially against the backdrop of the information that only about six states had passed the amendment out of the 36 states and the FCT, Gbajabiamila affirmed that there was a “national consensus” among Nigerians on the need for the amendments.

“I see no reason why anyone will want to have a rethink on it,” he said.

Participants at the meeting included the Chairman of the Governors’ Forum and Governor of Kwara State, AbdulRahman AbdulRazak , Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State, Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State, the Inspector-General of Police, Tunji Disu, and the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, represented by the Solicitor-General and Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Justice, Mrs Beatrice Jedy-Agba.

Other members of the committee were the Chairman, Policy Advisory Committee, Justice Abdullahi Liman (rtd); the Head, Nigeria Police Reform Secretariat, Professor Olu Ogunsakin; the Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Matters (House of Representatives), Dr Lanre Smart; the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Planning and Research, who also doubles as the Secretary of the Committee, Nnadubem Moghalu; a representative of the President of the Nigerian Bar Association; and AIG Abraham Nabhon Thomas, representing the National Security Adviser, among others.