The creation of state police has continued to generate intense reactions, with stakeholders sharply divided over its potential benefits and risks.

News reports that the idea of state police in Nigeria is not new. It has been debated for years, but the current bill gained real legislative momentum between 2023–2026.

A look at Nigeria’s history shows that, at independence in 1960, Nigeria operated a dual policing structure, with both federal and regional police structures, alongside a Native Authority Local Police.

However, the first military coup in 1966 abolished regional police because regional governments abused and used them for political manipulation.

After the coup, Nigeria’s politics centralised rapidly, and policing was pulled under federal control along with other institutions.

When democracy returned in 1999, the centralised model stayed in place. Section 214(1) of the 1999 Constitution states that there shall be one Police Force for Nigeria, and no other police force shall be established for the federation or any part of it, while Section 215 centralises command in the Inspector-General of Police, leaving governors as mere “Chief Security Officers” without operational control.

Following Nigeria’s return to democratic rule, conversations have gradually reopened about the return of state police. The calls have especially intensified considering the insecurity in the nation.

On June 10, 2026, the House of Representatives passed a bill to alter the 1999 Constitution to establish state police, while the Senate referred it to committee the same day.

On June 24, 2026, the Senate passed its version, amending the Constitution to replace the existing Nigeria Police Force framework with a dual structure of a Federal Police Service and State Police Services.

The House vote was 289 in favour. Only one member voted against it.

Controversy
While some political stakeholders have applauded the creation of state police, others have expressed fears that governors might use it as a tool to oppress the opposition.

The presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Obi, and his counterpart in the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Atiku Abubakar, argued that the bill should have waited until after the 2027 general elections, fearing state police could be misused against opposition parties during the polls.

Obi opined that, if implemented, the current administration of President Bola Tinubu could use state police against opposition politicians in the forthcoming 2027 election.

While supporting the passage of the bill, Obi frowned at the hasty passage of the said bill.

“Going by what Nigerians have seen so far, there is no guarantee that this administration can resist the temptation to take advantage of state policing to influence the 2027 general election by proxy.

“In view of that possibility and the danger it poses to the polity, it is necessary to defer its implementation until after the general election,” he said.

He said the passage of the bill by the National Assembly marks “a significant legislative milestone in addressing” insecurity in Nigeria, but its hasty passage was suspicious.

Also, the lawmaker representing Kano Central Senatorial District, Senator Sani Hanga, warned that the move would hand excessive power to state governors and endanger Nigeria’s democracy.

Hanga said state police would be used by governors to intimidate political opponents and silence dissenting voices. He insisted the proposal, if implemented, could plunge many states into crisis.

Citing the Emirship tussle in Kano State, the senator argued that the situation could have degenerated into civil war if a state-controlled police force had existed.

“If there is a state police, there would have been a civil war in Kano. I’m telling you as a politician. There would have been a civil war,” he said.

Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana, has opined that unless unemployment is tackled, state police may not be the solution to insecurity in Nigeria.

According to him, “I don’t think we should criminalise politicians, and I don’t want to engage in any conspiracy theory.

“The debates have been on since we started the campaign for restructuring in the country and set out a new phenomenon.

“How do we have more police stations? How do we employ more policemen and women without considering social security? Why are we not talking of creating employment for young people? Why are we not giving assistance to Nigerians that are vulnerable, extremely poor?

“And unless you address this problem holistically, creating a state police or local government police will not address the crisis of insecurity in the country.

Former Minister of Sport, Solomon Dalung, has stated that he does not see the effectiveness of state police in the war against insecurity across the country.

According to him, “Well, the passing of the State Police bill by the Senate is just a political ploy to deceive Nigerians ahead of the 2027 election.

“The security challenges have been with this government since inception, and if it was serious about considering the issue of state police, it would have done it long before now.

“But now, the government realizes that it has failed woefully to address security challenges and has no solution at all, so they are now trying to hoodwink Nigerians with the issue of state police.

“Number two, the State Police is desirable, but the timing is wrong. The timing is political, the timing is ill-motivated, and it is just intended to satisfy political interests, but not to protect Nigerians.

“This is because the question now is, what is the architecture of the state police as passed by the National Assembly? What is the problem with the current architecture that it couldn’t protect Nigerians, when even over 5 trillion was voted for security, yet Nigerians are not safe?

“So, what will the state police do differently? The state police as contemplated by the bill cannot deal with the current security challenges, except it will compound the security situation.”

Not A Quick Fix
Sharing his thoughts on the controversies, political analyst Jide Ojo has dismissed concerns that the state police might be deployed to oppress opposition ahead of the 2027 election.

Ojo told Naija News that while the urgency for state police in Nigeria is clear, its actual implementation will be a gradual and complex process rather than an immediate fix.

He said, “On this issue of state police that we actually need it like yesterday.

“But you need to cross the T’s and dot the I’s very well so that it’s not subjected to abuse. The concerns many Nigerians have, particularly the political classes is that this could be another tool in the hand of ruling parties to deal with the opposition. But we know the challenge that we are facing in terms of security.

“Just yesterday, another round of abduction of school children happened in Kogi State. Four students writing NECO, their principal, and maybe one NECO official were alleged to have been abducted. I mean, we have a lot of ungoverned spaces in Nigeria.

“There are local governments that will travel kilometers, as in 50, 100 kilometers, without seeing one single police station. And yet people live in those communities, and they rely heavily on vigilantes, who themselves are wielding machetes, maybe charms and, you know, catapults and all of that. That cannot deal with bandits that are coming with AK-47, AK-49, that are having RPG.

“You understand? And when you look at the number of boots on ground for Nigerian security, this is a country of over 200 million. We don’t actually know how many we are. Let’s say 200 million, and we have less than 400,000 policemen, less than 200,000 armed forces, or let’s even say another 400,000.

“That is like a total of 800 to 1 million. For a country this huge, you know, it’s not easy. And not just huge in size, not just huge in terms of population, but in land mass, Nigeria is very huge.

“I once traveled in Kaduna. Kaduna alone, you can do, how many hours? Someone told me about seven to ten hours within Kaduna alone. I’m not saying Kaduna and other states.

“Now, within Kaduna, from one point in Kaduna to another point in Kaduna, can take you several hours. Let me put it that mildly. Niger has the largest land mass in Nigeria.

“So when you have huge land mass that are ungoverned, that bandits are now using, how will you not look at the best way to solve the problem? Of course, I must say that it’s not a unilinear solution. State police is not a silver bullet that will solve all our security challenges.

“We still need the federal police. We still need the forest guards. You know, Nigeria, President Tinubu has signed on to Nigerian forest guards, and they are now being deployed across several states.

“Even in Oyo, when the Oriire school abduction took place, President Tinubu approved the deployment of 1,000 forest guards. In Kasina, he has also approved another 1,000 forest guards to be deployed. So we still need those forest guards.

“We still need the vigilantes, the hunters. But having state police is long overdue in my own estimation. It is long overdue.”

When asked about the possibility of governors using state police for political purposes, he said, “There are already safeguards in the election, in the constitutional alteration being done, to the extent that if a governor abuses the use of state police, the presidency can take over the security of that state.

“But I have not had the privilege of reading the bill. And don’t forget, we have two bills, one private member bill, one executive bill, which is why yesterday news came out, I think yesterday or two days ago, news came out that the House of Reps have now discarded the one they passed, because it was a private member bill. They’ve discarded it and now decided to adopt and pass the executive bill, so that they can have an harmonized position before it will go to the state houses of assembly.

“We should not be a slave to our fears. Abuse will come. There is no two ways.

“Politicians will be whom they are. Today, opposition politicians will be tomorrow’s party in government. What we need is strong institutions to address those abuses.

“The courts should be strengthened to deal with, and not just dealing with, expeditiously deal with cases that may arise from abuse of such. Because as we speak, there’s already abuse of federal police. it’s very common with odogwus in the South-East.

“They are going for Christmas and New Year. Some will even go with as many as 10 police escorts. Mobile not even regular police, they will request for Mopol, those ones with special cap, special beret, maybe red or blue, with well-armed, and they pay for it.

“Is that not an abuse? So one person will carry a dozen, and he’s not holding political office, but because he’s a “money miss road” he will go and bribe a DPO, and then they will release a battalion. Look, there was a time, and this Mike Ozekome, there was a time four policemen died in his entourage when he was abducted in Edbu State.

“I don’t know if you remember. Four policemen were shot dead, who were offering him protection, when he went to visit his community. This pastor, this popular pastor, Suleman, there was a time that they killed multiple policemen in his entourage, who also were there to give him protection.

“The same thing with the late Ifeanyi Uba. I think they killed about seven of his police escorts, when he was traveling to his hometown from Abuja. These are things you can fact check me on.

“So if one individual, because they have money, can afford to have dozens of police escorts, armed escorts, and the rest of the community don’t have enough, how then do you think we will not have a kind of abuse, if we now have one within state control? But when these controls happen, I am very positive that, since the courts will be there, anyone who feels aggrieved, can go to court. And I’ve also tried to allay the fears of opposition chieftains and candidates, that this state police team, before it will effectively take over, before it will effectively be on ground, will not take less than between nine months to one year, by which time we will have concluded the election. You know why I said that? This is already middle of July.

“The laws are still being dealt with at the National Assembly level. By the time you send it to the State Assembly, they will not sit and pass it the same day. They will take their time.

“Maybe another one month will be given to them to say, please do this expeditiously. Because especially if the version that gets to the state will strip the governors of power to do a bit, some states might not want to pass it the way it is sent to them. I don’t know whether I’m making sense.

“So you need 24, minimum of 24 states, to pass this before it can become law. That’s one. Even when you have passed it, there is also a provision in this executive bill that says that another, the governor will now sponsor another bill into the state House of Assembly.

“You understand? That will now spell out in better details, because the constitution will just say, we will now have state policing and all of that. It will not spell out the final details of funding, recruitment, discipline, appointment, pension, funding. You understand? So those final details will not be in the state’s bill.

“The executive bill, the governor is expected to now sponsor. Even as we speak, remember that President Tinubu just set up a committee headed by Gbajabiamila. There will also be the Nigerian police amendment bill that will be an act of national assembly, not a constitutional alteration.

“So you can see different layers now, aside for the constitutional alteration.

“Did you know that Tinubu has also sponsored a bill that deals with the final details of how states will now operate in that ecosystem of electricity generation, transmission, and distribution. And several states have not passed that legislation as we speak. But what I’m saying is that it’s not automatic that today, if that bill is even signed by the President, which I don’t see it happening until maybe sometime in September, because you know, we are also doing this alongside politics of 2027.

“So by the time they send the bill to the status of assembly, it is passed, it is brought back, then the national assembly will send it to the President. It will be assented to. That’s if there’s no major alteration and the threshold is passed.

“We have 24 states. Then you have to sponsor an executive bill to make it pass in the state house of assembly. When you are done with the legal framework, that’s when the work starts.

“You have to make provision in the budget. By August, September, many states will start submitting their budget for 2027. So it is in that budget, hopefully, that you will now have a budget item for the state police.

“Then there’s also the police service commission bill. Aside from the one that will spell out all the operationalization of the state police, you will now have to also have police service commission at the state level. That’s making it two bills that the state will have to pass.

“And only those states that are interested in funding state police now will pass those legislation. So when you have passed those two bills, you now have a budget for that. That’s when you can now start the recruitment.

“After you have appointed those who will run the process, you know it’s not going to be the civil service that will run that process. They will have to set up. That’s why the police service commission has to be in place.

“When you have the state police service commission, they are the ones that will deal with recruitment, training, deployment, and all of that. So by the time you are doing that, you remember that police is not an institution where you recruit people today, give them an appointment later today, and they start work today. What do they do? They will have to go through training, minimum of six months.

“Are you with me? Minimum of six months. That already takes us to election time. And that is moving fast.

“So if it moves fast, that’s when you do. By the time you now want to train, as you are training these people, maybe some state will have to also establish their own training institute or use the one that federal government is using. But even if they use it for one, two years, they will have to still build their own training institute to train their police.

“By the time you are dealing with that, you also have to build police stations. Is that not true? You cannot be using the federal police stations to operate. You have to go and build your own state police station, build your own barracks.

“By the time you are doing all of this, can you put a timeline to this, especially if there is no funding readily available? There is also the wider issue of having this Nigerian state police on the first line charge of the state consolidated fund, so that funding will not be an issue. As you pass the state budget, the money meant for the state to run the state police is already ear marked, not that there will be delay in their salary. Because when you delay salary payments, allowances, emoluments of these people, they can turn around and constitute a nuisance and security challenge to even the people they are meant to protect.

“Right now, we have state high courts, don’t we? We have state prisons. We already have the alteration of the constitution that now granted states to also build correctional centers, which we formally call prisons. So the missing link is the state police.

“And by the time we have these three in place, they will now have this justice sector reform is complete. Well, we need proper oversight so that there’s no abuse when they start operation, ultimately when they start operation.”