Ogun Assembly backs establishment of State Police
Speaker Elemide noted that the Assembly joined other State Houses of Assembly across the country in supporting the ... The post Ogun Assembly backs establishment of State Police appeared first on Tribune Online.
The push for state police has been one of Nigeria's most persistent federalism debates, with proponents arguing that a decentralised policing structure would improve security response times and local accountability, given that the Nigeria Police Force currently operates as a single centralised command controlled from Abuja. Past efforts to amend the 1999 Constitution to allow states to establish their own police forces have stalled in the National Assembly amid concerns over possible abuse by governors, funding capacity, and inter-agency rivalry, but the proposal has gained fresh momentum in recent years as insecurity—banditry, kidnapping and communal clashes—has spread across several states.
The Ogun State House of Assembly's resolution adds to a growing list of state legislatures formally endorsing the constitutional alteration required to create state police, a step that falls under the process for amending the constitution which requires concurrence from at least two-thirds of the 36 state assemblies. Both Tribune Online and Vanguard report that the resolution was passed under Speaker Elemide's leadership, aligning Ogun with other states already backing the measure, though neither report details a timeline for when the amendment could take full effect or how a prospective Ogun state police outfit would be funded and structured.