President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday inaugurated the Presidential Working Group on the National Policing Bill to develop the legal framework for implementing state police across Nigeria.
Represented by his Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, Tinubu inaugurated the panel at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, following the passage of the Constitution Alteration (State Police) Bill, 2026, by the National Assembly.
The President said while the constitutional amendment establishes a dual policing structure comprising the Federal Police Service and 36 State Police Services, the proposed National Policing Bill would provide the legal framework for operationalising the system.
According to Tinubu, the legislation will cover minimum policing standards, state readiness certification, federal-state coordination, accountability, human rights safeguards and funding requirements.
He said the working group had been constituted to produce an implementation-ready draft bill for transmission to the National Assembly without waiting for the constitutional amendment process to be completed.
Gbajabiamila will chair the committee, whose members include the Attorney-General of the Federation, the President of the Nigerian Bar Association, the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors' Forum, the National Security Adviser, the Inspector-General of Police and the Chairman of the NGF Committee on State Police.
Speaking on behalf of the governors, Dapo Abiodun pledged the support of state governments for the reform, saying governors would work to ensure swift passage of the constitutional amendment in their respective Houses of Assembly.
He described state policing as a response to longstanding calls for community-based security and said the reform could add nearly 200,000 personnel to Nigeria's policing system if fully implemented.
Attorney-General of the Federation Lateef Fagbemi described the initiative as timely given the country's security challenges and urged governors to expedite ratification of the constitutional amendment.
President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Afam Osigwe, endorsed the move, saying Nigeria could no longer rely solely on a centralised police system.
He, however, called for strong legal safeguards to ensure accountability and prevent abuse of state police powers.
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