By: Seun Kabir
The Lagos State House of Assembly has approved the proposed constitutional amendment to create state police, becoming the latest state legislature to support the push to decentralise policing in Nigeria.
The Assembly decided on Tuesday, with Speaker Mudashiru Obasa presiding. The National Assembly had sent the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (Sixth Alteration) Bill, 2026 to the states for their concurrence. The Clerk to the National Assembly, Kamoru Ogunlana, confirmed that the bill had been transmitted as part of the ongoing constitutional review.
Under Section 9(2) of the Constitution, the bill needs resolutions from at least 24 of the 36 state Houses of Assembly before it can go to the President for assent. Lagos now counts among the states in support.
The amendment would set up two tiers of policing: a Federal Police Service and State Police Services. President Bola Tinubu has backed the change, and a Presidential Working Group on the National Policing Bill has been inaugurated to draft the legal framework. Supporters say state police would bring law enforcement closer to communities, speed up responses to local threats and improve intelligence gathering.
Obasa called the amendment timely and said successive administrations and assemblies had struggled with how to protect lives and property. He thanked the National Assembly and his colleagues for moving the proposal forward and praised Tinubu for supporting it.
He also voiced concern about how much power the federal government keeps under the proposed arrangement. He said Lagos is pleased to be getting state police, but that the interests of the states haven’t been fully addressed and the main control still sits at the centre. He also objected to a provision that gives federal law priority where state and federal laws conflict. Even so, he described the amendment as progress and said he hopes later reforms will hand states more control over their police.
The Speaker went on to propose a Parliamentary Police to guard legislative institutions, so that political disputes can’t put a legislature’s security at risk. He said a dedicated arrangement like the one in the United States should be considered to protect the independence of state assemblies.
The Assembly then adjourned plenary until 9 November 2026.
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