Enugu Assembly approves creation of state police

The Enugu State House of Assembly has passed a resolution backing the creation of the state police.

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The lawmakers passed the resolution during plenary on Tuesday, Speaker Uche Ugwu announced in a Facebook post earlier today.

Mr Ugwu, who represents Udi North State Constituency in the assembly, said, during the plenary, members of the House voted in support of the bill seeking alteration of the Nigerian constitution to provide for establishment of the state police.

“This will go a long way in addressing the issues surrounding our internal security,” he said.

The speaker said lawmakers extolled the vision and courage of the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led government and the leadership of the party at all levels to listen to the “heartbeat of Nigerians” by supporting state police creation.

State police debate

The agitation for creation of state police has raged on for more than two decades, as Nigeria increasingly grappled with widening security challenges.

The campaign also divided Nigerians, with antagonists expressing fears over possible abuse by state governors and supporters insisting that its benefits outweigh its downside.

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But President Bola Tinubu later adopted the creation of state police as one of his cardinal programmes to address insecurity across Nigeria.

On 11 June, hope rose when the House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment bill seeking to establish state police across the federation.

The Senate also passed the bill, days later.

However, the bill for the state police still needs the support of 24 of Nigeria’s 36 state assemblies and the signature of the president to become law.

In early October, the Secretary of the Presidential Working Group on the National Policing Bill, Nnadubem Moghalu, said four states had approved the constitutional amendment bill seeking to establish state police in Nigeria.

Mr Moghalu identified the four states as Edo, Oyo, Osun and Rivers.

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With the latest development, Enugu State has now joined the list of states that have approved creation of state police.

It is unclear if more states have also approved the state police creation, but PREMIUM TIMES reports that state assemblies had begun considering the bill after the National Assembly transmitted it to them as part of the constitutional alteration process.

The state police bill seeks to create a policing system in which individual state governments have their own police forces, alongside the existing Nigeria Police Force controlled by the federal government.

The proposed model is intended to bring policing closer to communities, allowing officers to respond more quickly to local security challenges and draw on better knowledge of the communities they serve.