Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele has assured that the law for the establishment of state police in Nigeria will be ready on or before December 2026.
He said this as the bill finally crossed its most critical constitutional threshold with no fewer than 30 State Houses of Assembly officially approving the State Police Constitution Alteration Bill, 2026.
Bamidele, who was speaking on the Bill on Thursday, declared that multi-tier policing in Nigeria had moved from a recurring political promise into an actionable constitutional reality.
The Senate Leader, who also doubles as the Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Review of the 1999 Constitution, disclosed this while delivering a paper at the National Institute for Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), Kuru, Plateau State.
He addressed participants of the Senior Executive Course (SEC) 48 on the topic, “Improving the Efficiency and Effectiveness of Governance through Proactive Lawmaking.”
While highlighting the historic milestone, Bamidele explained that the 30 state approvals comfortably satisfied the two-thirds concurrency requirement mandated by Section 9(2) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).
He said, “We are pleased to inform our constituents across the federation that State Police have moved from rhetoric to reality.
“By the provision of Section 9(2) of the 1999 Constitution, which requires the concurrence of not less than two-thirds of all State Houses of Assembly, the constitutional requirement for the alteration has been duly met.”
Outlining the next legislative steps, the Senate Leader revealed that the process is now procedural but vital.
According to him, the National Assembly will formally collate the reports from the state assemblies, pass a resolution by a simple majority in both chambers, and transmit the bill to the President for assent—a sequence scheduled for completion on or before December 2026.
Addressing concerns over potential misuse by state executive authorities, Bamidele emphasised that the reform is aimed at decentralised security, not creating political armies.
“It is not about creating state armies, but about creating state-led, community-anchored policing within clear constitutional safeguards, operational standards, oversight mechanisms, and human rights protections,” he said.
He added that the objective is to build a security framework that understands local terrain and communicates in local languages.
