The House of Representatives on Thursday passed the long-debated State Police Bill, marking a significant step toward the decentralisation of Nigeria’s policing system amid growing concerns over insecurity across the country.
The decision was reached during plenary presided over by the Speaker of the House, Tajudeen Abbas, with an overwhelming majority of lawmakers backing the proposal.
A total of 289 members voted in favour of the bill, while only one lawmaker voted against it. The Speaker abstained from voting.
The House had earlier scheduled Thursday’s sitting for consideration and voting on the bill as part of ongoing constitutional amendment efforts aimed at addressing the persistent challenges of terrorism, banditry, kidnapping, and other violent crimes.
The session, however, witnessed a brief moment of controversy before voting commenced.
A member representing Kaduna State, Bashir Zubairu of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), raised a point of order, arguing that lawmakers had not been given sufficient time to study the report on the proposed state police framework prepared by the House Committee on Constitution Review.
According to him, the document was only distributed to members shortly before the commencement of plenary.
“Mr Speaker, this document was only made available to lawmakers in the chambers, and we are yet to go through it. We cannot do justice to it because we have not gone through it,” Zubairu said.