Presidential panel submits draft National Policing Bill to Justice Ministry for review

The Presidential Working Group on the National Policing Bill has submitted a draft of the National Policing Bill to the Federal Ministry of Justice for legislative drafting review and validation.

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The draft was submitted alongside 29 “consequential amendment bills,” Femi Gbajabiamila, the working group’s chairperson and chief of staff to President Bola Tinubu, said in a statement released on Tuesday.

Mr Gbajabiamila had earlier stated that the bill would be presented to the National Assembly in about “a week or so”, subject to incorporation of undisclosed observations made by governors.

The one-week timeframe elapses tomorrow, Thursday, 21 October. Now, the ministry is expected to return the validated bills to the working group on or before 30 October for final consideration before they are presented to Mr Tinubu.

Mr Gbajabiamila stated that the submission was made on 19 October to the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi.

The proposed legislation seeks to establish a legal framework for a dual policing structure comprising a Federal Police Service and State Police Services.

According to Mr Gbajabiamila, the ministry of justice’s review will ensure that the bills comply with legislative drafting standards and conventions and do not conflict with existing laws.

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He said the working group remained committed to a rigorous and transparent process to produce a comprehensive legislative proposal for the president’s consideration and subsequent transmission to the National Assembly.

The development comes as state Houses of Assembly continue to review the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (Sixth Alteration) Bill, 2026.

The constitutional amendment process must be completed before the bill can be transmitted to the National Assembly, Mr Gbajabiamila said.

The proposed policing legislation is part of ongoing efforts to establish the legal and constitutional framework for state police in Nigeria, a long-standing subject of debate over how to address the country’s security challenges.

PREMIUM TIMES reported that the committee was created on 7 July after the National Assembly passed the state police bill to fulfil one of President Tinubu’s key security reforms. While the constitutional amendment changes the law to allow state police, it does not provide the practical rules on how to run them, necessitating the creation of the committee.

To kickstart its mandate, the committee launched a seven-week operational roadmap running from 27 July to 14 September. The roadmap was adopted to audit existing laws like the Police Act 2020 and write the initial draft of the new law.

READ ALSO: Plateau Assembly approves state police bill

During this phase, the committee opened a crucial two-week window for public consultation, inviting memoranda and policy proposals from security experts, civil society, and everyday Nigerians to ensure citizen-centred accountability. The committee subsequently received inputs from Nigerians.

While the committee engineered the bill’s operational standards in Abuja, the foundational constitutional amendment advanced concurrently across the country.
To legally scale, the amendment requires ratification by 24 of the 36 State Houses of Assembly. Progress has steadily gained traction, with states like Edo, Osun, Oyo, Rivers, and Zamfara formally passing the ratification bill.