N’Assembly creating safeguards against state police abuse —Bamidele

Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, the Senate Leader, has assured Nigerians that the National Assembly is incorporating constitutional and legal safeguards into the proposed state police bill to prevent governors from misusing the new security outfit.

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There will always be fears and concerns. Whether those concerns are well-founded is another issue altogether, but we are not unmindful of them. In most cases, they are legitimate concerns.

Bamidele acknowledged that public concerns regarding the potential for governors to weaponize state police forces for political ends are legitimate. He stated that lawmakers are taking deliberate steps to address these fears within the ongoing constitutional amendment process.

Speaking to journalists after a meeting with President Bola Tinubu, Bamidele noted that governors already hold significant influence over police deployments within their states, even under the current federal structure. He asserted that the new framework aims to provide even stronger constraints against potential abuses than the existing arrangement.

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We are putting mechanisms in the law, as we are amending the Constitution, that will prevent or minimise instances of abuse by state governors.

"We are putting mechanisms in the law, as we are amending the Constitution, that will prevent or minimise instances of abuse by state governors," Bamidele explained. He added that while not everything can be included in the Constitution, these concerns are being seriously considered. A second, more detailed layer of safeguards will be included in subsequent amendments to the Police Act, providing operational specifics that cannot fit into the national constitution.

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It is not everything that can go into the Constitution, but what is important is that we are taking these concerns into consideration.

Bamidele also pointed to the broad support for state police among governors as an indicator that the initiative is viewed as a national necessity rather than a partisan project. He expressed confidence that state Houses of Assembly would expedite the passage of the constitutional amendment once it is transmitted by the National Assembly, anticipating that most governors are aligned on the issue.

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In the amendment to the Police Act that will follow, we will spell out more details, details that cannot possibly go into the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.