House Approves State Police Bill

The House of Representatives has passed the State Police Bill, a key move toward decentralising Nigeria’s policing system.

In Thursday’s plenary session, 289 lawmakers voted in favour of the bill, while only one member opposed it. The vote was conducted under the chairmanship of Speaker Tajudeen Abbas.

The lower chamber devoted the day’s sitting to the proposed legislation amid growing concerns over insecurity—including killings, kidnappings and bandit attacks across the country.

During the proceedings, a brief controversy arose when Kaduna State lawmaker Bashir Zubairu raised a point of order. He claimed that members had only received the report prepared by the House Committee on Constitution Review earlier in the day and had insufficient time to study it.

After being recognised by the Speaker, Zubairu said, “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.”

Abbas ruled the point of order out of order and instructed the session to continue. Some members shouted “Point of Order” during the bill’s review, but the Speaker declined to entertain the interruptions.

Before voting began, Abbas informed members that the electronic voting system was not functioning and that the result would be determined from attendance records.

Of the 290 lawmakers present, 289 supported the establishment of state police, while only one member voted against the proposal. Speaker Abbas abstained from the vote.