Senate Leader: First-Line Charge Will Shield State Police from Govs’ Interference

• Says it’s vulnerable without constitutionally guaranteed funding 

•Warns business interests, cabals, criminals could hijack it if poorly funded 

•Funding must be clearly spelt out before kick off, declares Speaker Abbas

Adedayo Akinwale and Sunday Aborisade in Abuja

Leader of the Senate, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, yesterday, said funding of the proposed state police services should be established as a first-line charge in the 1999 Constitution, stressing that it is the only way to protect it from possible interference by state governors.

Bamidele insisted that financial autonomy was key to prevention of political interference and protection of the integrity of the new policing structure.

Similarly, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Tajudeen Abbas, said a proper funding mechanism must be well spelt out before the establishment of state police.

Bamidele, who also served as Vice Chairman of the Senate Committee on Review of the 1999 Constitution, warned that without constitutionally guaranteed funding, the proposed state police could become vulnerable not only to manipulation by governors but also to undue influence from powerful business interests, cabals, and criminal networks.

The senate leader made the remarks while responding to concerns raised by stakeholders over the proposed constitutional amendment seeking to establish state police, according to a statement by his Directorate of Media and Public Affairs.

He acknowledged that the reservations expressed by Nigerians over the proposal were legitimate and deserved careful consideration.

According to him, “Nearly all the public concerns on the state police proposal are well founded and, obviously, cannot be swept under the carpet considering their weight and enormity.”

Bamidele stated that many of the concerns stemmed from Nigeria’s experience during the First Republic, when the 1960 and 1963 constitutions empowered regional governments to establish their own police forces, a development that was widely criticised for political abuse.

He, however, assured Nigerians that the National Assembly was building robust constitutional safeguards to ensure that the proposed state police system operated independently, professionally, and in the public interest

He disclosed that lawmakers were considering a multi-layered framework that would guarantee discipline among personnel, institutional independence, and fiscal autonomy.

Central to the proposal, he said, was a constitutional provision making the funding of state police services a first-line charge, similar to the financial arrangement already guaranteed for the judiciary.

Bamidele explained that under the current constitutional framework, the judiciary enjoyed financial independence because its statutory allocations were charged directly on the Consolidated Revenue Fund, thereby insulating it from executive interference.

He stated, “The funding of the judiciary is provided for in the 1999 Constitution. The Chief Justice of Nigeria, for instance, does not have to take her file to the President for approval on every procurement, unlike a minister or any member of the Federal Executive Council that must secure presidential approval to spend any money.

“That is why we call it a first-line charge. In other words, the Commissioner of Police and the State Police Service Commission must have a guaranteed source of funds provided for in the constitution in such a way that the police chief will not be subject to the whims and caprices of a state governor.”

He stressed that financial independence would prevent situations where governors could withhold funds from state police commands simply because they disagreed with operational decisions.

Bamidele stated, “Part of the critical issue we must resolve in amending the 1999 Constitution is to guarantee the financial independence of state police services. It should not be left entirely to the discretion of a governor whether he wants to fund the state police service or not.

“If a state police service is not responding well to the directives of a governor, he may choose not to fund it. We must prevent such a situation.

“We are, therefore, under the obligation to make provision for a certain percentage of a state’s budget specifically for the operations of state police services.

“Access to funds must be clearly spelt out.”

The senate leader also assured Nigerians that the constitutional amendment process would produce a state police system that will be accountable to the people while addressing genuine concerns raised by stakeholders.

He stated that creating state police without adequate and guaranteed funding would defeat the objective of improving internal security across the federation.

Bamidele further explained that the constitutional review sought to transfer policing powers from Exclusive Legislative List to Concurrent Legislative List, thereby empowering state governments to establish and operate their own police services alongside the Nigeria Police.

While fears over political interference had dominated public debate on the proposal, Bamidele cautioned that the risks went beyond politicians.

He stated, “Those who expressed concerns only talked of political abuse. But it is more than political abuse. If a state police service is not well funded, it is not only political actors that can abuse state police services.

“Business class can also abuse it. Some other organisations, even criminals or cabals, can abuse state police service because it is a question of ‘he who pays the piper dictates the tune’.

“If a state police service is not well funded by any means, we have a situation where it may as well be a highway to nowhere. That is one thing all of us must prevent.”

Bamidele maintained that the National Assembly remained committed to delivering a constitutional framework that would strengthen security while safeguarding the operational independence and accountability of state police services.

Funding for State Police Must Be Clearly Spelt Out Before Kick Off, Declares Abbas

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Tajudeen Abbas, said a proper funding mechanism must be well spelt out before the establishment of state police.

Speaking in Abuja at the National Security Roundtable session as part of the NASS Open Week 2026, Abbas suggested measures to be put in place for the actualisation of a better decentralised police structure in Nigeria.

He stated, “First, the National Minimum Standards Act must come before the first state police issue a single directive: standards first, structures after.

“Second, we should move step-by-step, state-by-state, learning as Germany and Canada learned, rather than switching on 36 new forces on the same day.

“Third, we must settle the question of money from the very beginning, whether through a dedicated policing fund, through shared services, or through federal support that is tied firmly to standards, so that no state creates a police force it cannot pay, and no unpaid officer becomes a threat to the citizen he has sworn to protect.”

The speaker commended President Bola Tinubu for leading the move to decentralise the current Nigeria Police and create state police.

According to him, “For the first time in our history, a sitting president has made state police a central part of national reform. President Tinubu has done so not with words alone, but with a bill that now sits before the National Assembly.”

In addition to minimum policing standards, phased creation of police across states, and funding options before establishment, Abbas stated, “Let me begin with a word of appreciation, because it is deserved. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has done what many leaders talked about for 30 years, but few dared to attempt.

“He has sent this Parliament an Executive Bill to amend the constitution and to allow for State Police Services. It takes conviction to bring the most sensitive question in our federation before the whole country, and it takes humility to place that question in the hands of the legislature and the people. For that, this House thanks him.”

While stating that the National Assembly had funded security agencies year after year, and it will continue to do so, the speaker stated that “money by itself is not a strategy”.

He said, “We must legislate for a modern, shared criminal and biometric database so that a suspect known in one state is not a stranger in the next. We must connect our agencies into one network of intelligence so that they work together instead of apart.

“We must build, in law, the architecture for inter-agency coordination and intelligence-sharing. We must legislate for technology, safe schools, border security, and the welfare and equipment of the officer at the checkpoint. And we must use our oversight to ensure accountability at all times.”

Abbas said a country as large and varied as Nigeria could not be policed forever by one central force run from the capital.

 He stressed that more than 200 million people lived across forests, farmlands, and borders, saying that a single force cannot know every community or watch every road.

Abbas added that local security problems needed local knowledge, local presence, and local accountability.

He stressed that policing worked best when the people who protected a community actually belonged to it, and that was the confidence that the reform was meant to rebuild.

The speaker said he understood the “reasonable” concerns of many people in the state police discourse, especially the fears that police could become the private army of a governor or a political godfather.

“The people who drafted this bill had the same fears, and they answered it. A state appoints its Commissioner of Police on the recommendation of the National Police Council.

“The state assembly must confirm that appointment, and only a two-thirds majority of the Assembly can remove the officer, and, even then, only for good cause.

“If a state police breaks down, or falls into the wrong hands, or turns against the very people it should protect, the constitution allows the federal police to step in.

“But it allows this only in defined situations, only in writing, only for a limited period, with notice to the governor and to the National Assembly within 48 hours, and always subject to the courts.

“No such step may dissolve a state police or suspend a state’s elected institutions. These are the safeguards that will keep the reform honest.”

Citing the examples of Germany, Canada, and the United States, and how they decentralised their police structures, Abbas called for a proper study of the various models and how the systems could work for Nigeria.

He stated, “From all of these examples, one lesson keeps returning. Local policing succeeds only where national standards, shared information, and firm accountability hold it together.

“Where those are missing, a police force can become a danger to the very people it was created to protect. Let us take what is strong in these models, and let us avoid what has failed in them.”