THE LEADER of the Senate, Sen. Opeyemi Bamidele (APC-Ekiti) has said that 30 state Houses of Assembly have approved the Constitution Alteration Bill for the establishment of State Police Services in Nigeria.
The bill is titled: “A Bill for an Act to Alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, to provide for the Establishment of State Police Services and for Related Matters.”
Bamidele at plenary on Wednesday in Abuja said that Adamawa State House of Assembly was among the latest to approve the bill, bringing the total number of approvals to 30.
He said that the figure surpassed the constitutional requirement for alteration of the constitution.
He described the development as a clear indication of the popularity of the bill among Nigerians through their elected representatives in the state houses of assembly.
“So far, we already got 30 states showing the popularity of this bill among Nigerians through their representatives in the state houses of assembly.
“And we believe that the remaining six states will get back to the national assembly before the deadline of Nov. 15.
“But so far, I want to say that this is a very happy development for our democracy and for the government and people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“We already got more than two-thirds of the states needed, but I don’t think there are any states that want to be left out of this epoch-making development,” he said.
Explaining the process, the Senate leader said that three key words were used in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, in the alteration process.
“The first word is passage, the second word is approval and the third word is assent.
“The passage of the bill is meant to be done by the National Assembly, which was done; approval is meant to be done by at least two-thirds of the 36 state houses of assembly in the country, and assent is to be given by the President to complete this process,” he said.
Bamidele said the reason the writers of the 1999 constitution provided for that rigorous process was to ensure broad national consensus before any part of the constitution is altered.
According to him, with 30 state assemblies having approved the bill, the requirement of two-thirds, which is 24 states, had been met and exceeded.
He listed the 30 states as Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Borno, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Ekiti, Enugu, Gombe, Imo, and Jigawa.
Others are Kaduna, Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Lagos, Nasarawa, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Plateau, Rivers, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe and Zamfara.
The senate leader also clarified the timeline given to the state assemblies for consideration of the bill.
“Let me clarify that the letter that was written on our behalf and signed by the Clerk to the National Assembly was conveyed to the 36 state houses of assembly on Oct. 15.
“In the letter, the Clerk had indicated, on our behalf, that the state houses of assembly will have up to Nov. 15, which will make clearly a 30-day period, to allow them enough time to sit and consider the bill.
“So, they still have until Nov. 15,” he said.
Bamidele said the reason for the timeline was to enable the national assembly to transmit the bill to the President on time.
“The reason we have to do that, which also we are emphasising now, is that we need to transmit the bill to Mr President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, any time from Nov. 15.
“So, we believe that the six states that are left would do the needful between now and that period,” he said.
He added that at the expiration of the Nov. 15 deadline, the national assembly would transmit the bill to President Bola Tinubu for assent in line with the provisions of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as amended.
The Deputy President of the Senate, Sen. Barau Jibrin (APC-Kano) said Kano state House of Assembly had already approved the bill and was on the process of sending it to the National Assembly, assuring that the bill would soon be delivered.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the bill seeks to decentralise policing in Nigeria by empowering states to establish their own police services to complement the Nigeria Police Force in tackling insecurity.
If assented to by the President, the bill will become law and pave the way for the establishment of state police across the federation. (NAN)
