Afenifere warns state police bill could become federal tool

Afenifere has urged the National Assembly to amend the state police bill to ensure independence from federal government control.

The Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, has asked the National Assembly to revisit the bill seeking to establish state police, with a view to making it independent of the federal government. Rising from its caucus meeting on Thursday in Akure, the group specifically urged the National Assembly to place state police on the Constitution’s concurrent list.

While lauding President Bola Tinubu and the federal legislature for their efforts to ensure that state police become a reality, Afenifere noted that the bill contained areas that needed review. “However, there are some areas in the Bill that need to be reviewed, areas that tend to make the proposed State Police appendages of the federal government. In other words, there are clauses in the Bill that tend to strengthen the stronghold of the federal government on state police rather than liberalising it,” the group stated.

Both chambers of the National Assembly recently passed a bill to establish state police to tackle Nigeria’s lingering security challenges. The constitutional amendment bill will require the approval of two-thirds of the state Houses of Assembly before it is transmitted to the president for assent. Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele said the proposed legislation was “purely a child of necessity and not of political expediency as well as a product of national consensus and not of cynicism.”

Some political parties and groups have rejected the bill outright. Peter Obi, the Labour Party presidential candidate, called for the suspension of the implementation of state police until after the 2027 general election.

Afenifere also expressed concerns about the abduction of pupils and teachers in three schools in Oriire Local Government Area of Oyo State, as well as other kidnap incidents occurring in different parts of Yorubaland and Nigeria. The group said it is about 50 days since the incident occurred and urged authorities to work harder to ensure the abductees are freed.

The debate over state police echoes the 1999 constitutional conference debates, when similar concerns about federal control over state security forces were raised. The mechanism then was different, but the fear was the same: that state police would become tools of federal power rather than instruments of local accountability.

The winners: state governors who would gain control over local policing. The losers: the federal government, which would lose its monopoly over security forces, and citizens who may face politicised policing if the bill is not properly structured.

Bottom Line: State police is coming. The question is whether it will serve states or the federal government.