State Police: 30 State Assemblies Approve Constitutional Amendment

BASHIR MAYERE, Abuja

The Clerk of the National Assembly has announced the receipt of reports from 29 State Houses of Assembly on a bill seeking to alter the Constitution to provide for the establishment of state police.

The Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Barau Jibrin, who announced this during plenary, said the leadership had directed the Clerk to transmit the reports to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu today, Wednesday, for his assent.

Meanwhile, the Senate Leader explained that 30 State Houses of Assembly out of the 36 had approved the proposed constitutional amendment seeking to establish state police services across the country.

Presenting an update on the legislative process, the Senate Leader, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, explained that the National Assembly had completed its part of the constitutional amendment process by passing the bill and transmitting it to the state legislatures for consideration and approval.

He said the Constitution requires three stages for an amendment: passage by the National Assembly, approval by at least two-thirds of the State Houses of Assembly, and presidential assent.

Senator Bamidele noted that the required two-thirds majority translates to 24 states, meaning that the 30 states that have so far approved the bill have already surpassed the constitutional threshold.

Also speaking, the Deputy President of the Senate and Chairman of the Senate Committee on Constitutional Amendment, Senator Barau Jibrin, disclosed that Kano State had completed the necessary legislative process and that its response on the matter was being transmitted to the National Assembly.

In his remarks, the President of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, stressed the importance of allowing the remaining six states sufficient time to communicate whether they had approved or rejected the proposed amendment.