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A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress and former senator who represented Ekiti North at the 9th National Assembly, Ayodele Arise, said the recently passed State Police Amendment Act by the Senate would go a long way in mitigating the scary security challenges facing the country.
He disclosed this in a statement on Thursday.
DAILY POST reports that Nigeria’s Senate had on Wednesday joined the House of Representatives in passing the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (Alteration) (State Police) Bill, 2026.
According to him, it is good that President Bola Ahmed was at the centre of the passed State Police Bill.
He noted that the bill after its have completed its legislation process,, would give state governments and sub-national required Constitutional powers to tackle insecurity in their respective states squarely.
“Having state police is a much-needed solution to reduce the security threat that we are facing in the country. “There is no way security challenges will be eliminated completely, but kudos to Mr President that he has been very proactive on this subject as we continue to face the challenges of insecurity in the country.
“The president has been in the forefront of ensuring that solutions are provided to meet these challenges and almost completely eliminate the existence of these b,ad elements in the country as it comes to kidnapping that has been going on in communities and the ability of the Federal Police to respond very quickly and then move from one location to the other; they aren’t particularly familiar with the terrain.
“So, local police, which normally consists of people in the local area serving as policemen or as security agents on behalf of the government, already know the community; they know the people that reside in the community; they know the nooks and crannies of those communities.
“So, it is a very welcome development; it is something that I believe will solve, to a large extent, the security challenges that we have faced for several years in the past.”
Speaking on the fears of abuse by state governors, who will assume the power of appointing authority, unlike the present Federal Police, where the Inspector General of Police deploys the Commissioner of Police, Senator Arise expressed the confidence that the National Assembly would put in place Constitutional safeguards to curtail abuse by state governors.
“Yes, many of the objections are legitimate concerns, but most of the federal states that we know around the world, the successful ones like the United States and Canada, have this multi-layered policing system that has worked for them over the years.
“Some have had democracy for over 250 years and the multiple layers of policing states, communities, county, campus, up to the federal exist alongside.
Accordingly, if the legislation enjoyed the endorsement of 24 State Houses of Assembly, policing would no longer be the exclusive responsibility of the federal government.
States would be empowered to establish and fund their own police services; recruit personnel; and address local security challenges, subject to national minimum standards prescribed by the National Assembly.
The bill equally seeks to replace the existing Nigerian Police Force with a Federal Police Service and create a dual policing structure under which both federal and state police institutions would operate simultaneously.
