The National Assembly has begun the final stage of the constitutional amendment process to establish state police in Nigeria after 25 State Houses of Assembly endorsed the proposed reform.
Deputy Spokesman of the House of Representatives, Phillip Agbese, disclosed the development on Monday, saying the National Assembly had commenced receiving and collating formal resolutions from the state legislatures.
Agbese said the bill would be transmitted to President Bola Tinubu for assent once the Clerk to the National Assembly had authenticated the resolutions and confirmed that the constitutional requirements had been met.
He described the development as a major step towards restructuring Nigeria’s policing system, which currently operates predominantly under federal control.
According to him, the approval by the required number of state assemblies represents significant progress in efforts to bring policing closer to local communities and improve responses to security threats.
The 25 states that have endorsed the amendment are Adamawa, Ogun, Delta, Plateau, Kwara, Edo, Osun, Oyo, Rivers, Zamfara, Abia, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bayelsa, Benue, Cross River, Ekiti, Enugu, Gombe, Imo, Kaduna, Nasarawa, Taraba, Yobe and Kebbi.
Section 9(2) of the 1999 Constitution requires constitutional amendments to secure the support of at least two-thirds of the members of each chamber of the National Assembly and approval from at least 24 of the 36 State Houses of Assembly.
With the required threshold surpassed, the National Assembly is now processing the resolutions before the amendment can be formally transmitted to the President for assent.
Agbese said the proposed reform was intended to strengthen community-based security and make law enforcement more responsive to the needs of Nigerians.
“This is a critical and irreversible step forward,” he said, stressing the importance of decentralising policing to address the country’s persistent security challenges.
However, the constitutional amendment alone will not bring state police into operation. A separate National Policing Bill is being developed to establish the legal and operational framework for the proposed dual policing system.
The framework is expected to provide guidelines, operational standards and safeguards for the coexistence of federal and state police services.
The Presidential Working Group on the National Policing Bill is working on the accompanying legislation, which is expected to outline how the proposed state police system will operate.
The Senate passed the executive version of the constitutional amendment bill on June 24, 2026, while the House of Representatives passed its version on June 11 before rescinding that decision and adopting the executive version on July 23, 2026.
The National Assembly subsequently transmitted the bill to the 36 state Houses of Assembly on September 16 for consideration and approval in line with the constitutional amendment procedure.
Meanwhile, the Ondo State House of Assembly has also passed the constitutional amendment bill seeking to establish state police.
The bill scaled its second and third readings during plenary on Monday, with all lawmakers present supporting its passage.
House Leader Olatunji Oshati said lawmakers had carefully considered the implications of the proposed amendment and believed the reform could help address Nigeria’s security challenges.
Speaker Olamide Oladiji described the establishment of state police as long overdue, arguing that decentralised policing could improve intelligence gathering, enable quicker responses to crime and strengthen proactive security measures.
He subsequently directed the Clerk of the Assembly to transmit the document, alongside the lawmakers’ observations, to the National Assembly.
The proposed amendment seeks to establish a dual policing structure comprising federal and state police services. However, state police operations cannot commence until the constitutional amendment process is completed and the necessary legal and operational framework is established.
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