State Police Bill Passes Second Reading At House Of Reps

State Police Bill Passes Second Reading At House Of Reps

The State Police Bill has passed it’s second reading by the House of Representatives

iexclusive News Nigeria reports that a bill that would allow state governments to form their own police and security forces has passed second reading in the House of Representatives.

Onofiok Luke is the sponsor of the bill, titled “A Bill for an Act to Alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Cap. C23, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 to Provide for State Police and other state government security services to enhance security and preservation of lives and properties in Nigeria; and other related matters.”

According to the sponsor, just 400,000 police officers are on duty in a country with a population of about 200 million people.

“Nigeria is envisioned in the Constitution as a federal state.” Allowing state governments to build police forces and other security agencies will return Nigeria to its original constitutional concept of a federal state, he claims.

The bill seeks to add topics relevant to police and government security services to the concurrent list, allowing the federal and state governments to legislate on them simultaneously.

“Among many other responsibilities of government, saving lives and property stands first,” he stated.

According to the legislator, the social compact principle is based on the protection and preservation of life and property.

“Any failure by the government to uphold this basic responsibility/contractual term portends danger.

“For many years after independence, Nigeria has been plagued by insecurity, including terrorism, kidnapping, armed robbery, and domestic violence.

“There is no society without crime or manifestations of criminal behavior; our inability to reduce crime to the bare minimum is a damning indictment on the country’s current security architecture and structure,” he said.