Presidency to send State Police Bill to National Assembly in two weeks

Femi Gbajabiamila, Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu, says the Presidency will transmit the National Policing Bill to the National Assembly within two weeks.

In a statement on Thursday, Bayo Onanuga, the president’s spokesperson, said Mr Gbajabiamila stated this while speaking to journalists after a steering committee meeting at the State House in Abuja.

“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,” Mr Gbajabiamila said.

He described the proposed legislation as the most consequential bill of Mr Tinubu’s administration.

He noted that the working group’s steering committee began deliberations on the reforms on August 3.

Mr Gbajabiamila also expressed confidence that state governments would support the passage of the Sixth Constitution Alteration Bill, which seeks to establish state police.

According to him, this followed reports that only about six of Nigeria’s 36 states had passed the constitutional amendment, with the Federal Capital Territory excluded from the count.

He said there was a national consensus on the need for the proposed constitutional amendments.

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

The meeting was attended by the 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.

Also present were representatives of the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation, the Nigeria Police Reform Secretariat, the Presidential Policy Advisory Committee, the National Assembly and the Nigerian Bar Association.