The proposed constitutional amendment to establish state police in Nigeria has encountered a major hurdle, with only five of the 36 state Houses of Assembly having approved the bill ahead of the October 16 deadline.
As of Thursday, October 15, the Assemblies of Edo, Osun, Oyo, Rivers and Zamfara had endorsed the proposed amendment, which seeks to decentralise policing and provide a constitutional framework for state-controlled police services.
Several other state legislatures are yet to conclude their deliberations, with some still consulting stakeholders or reviewing the proposal.
The limited number of approvals leaves the amendment well short of the constitutional threshold required for it to proceed.
The bill was transmitted to the state Houses of Assembly on September 16, 2026, after the Senate passed it on June 24 and the House of Representatives approved it on July 23.
The National Assembly gave the state legislatures 30 days to communicate their decisions, with the deadline falling on Friday, October 16.
However, the leadership of the House of Representatives had yet to issue a formal statement on the progress of the exercise or outline the next steps in response to the low number of approvals.
Under Section 9(2) of the 1999 Constitution, a proposed constitutional alteration must be supported by resolutions from at least two-thirds of the 36 state Houses of Assembly, equivalent to 24 states, before it can be presented to the President for assent.
The proposed reform is intended to change Nigeria’s centralised policing structure by allowing states to establish and operate their own police services within a constitutional framework.
