The Nigerian Senate has stated that the federal parliament is ready to review the constitution to accommodate state police, provided the decentralization of the security system ends insecurity.
President Bola Tinubu, at a meeting with state governors on Thursday, approved the constitution of a committee to explore the modalities for the establishment of state police.
The police are currently on the exclusive legislative list in the constitution, barring state governments from establishing state police.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio had, earlier this week, constituted a 45-member committee to further review the 1999 constitution. The panel will be inaugurated next Tuesday.
The Senate spokesperson, Yemi Adaramodu, said in an interview with newsmen in Abuja on Friday that the Senate was ready to read the body language of Nigerians and come up with laws that would make lives meaningful to residents.
He said, “The parliament is to make laws, and the laws that the parliament will make will not be generated outside of the interests and aspirations of Nigerians.
“So, if either the federal government, the state governors, or whoever wants state police, so be it. We are ready to review our laws to accommodate them.
“The Senate is about to inaugurate the constitution amendment committee, and then when we put the panel in place, members will now go out there and meet up with all the critical stakeholders in Nigeria within the sectors, traditional rulers, and so on and so forth.”
Adaramodu, however, said the state houses of assembly and the governors would still have a crucial role to play because at least 24 out of the 36 states of the federation must vote in support of any amendment to the constitution before it could be signed by the president.
