All the 36 State Governors in Nigeria have submitted their reports to back the establishment of state police.
This was disclosed by the Kaduna State Governor Uba Sani on Thursday immediately after the 146th National Executive Council (NEC) meeting.
The Kaduna Governor revealed that the 36 states had submitted proposals supporting the establishment of state police, reflecting a strong consensus among the governors.
“Today, one of the discussions we had at the NEC meeting was the update on the creation of state police. As you are aware, there was a submission by States toward the establishment of state police.
”Today, about 36 states have already made their submission for establishing state police in Nigeria. And I can say here that from what is available, virtually most of the states are in agreement with the establishment of state police in Nigeria,” Sani stated.
Despite the overwhelming support, discussions on the initiative were postponed until the next NEC meeting scheduled for January.
Sani explained, “The council decided to step down the discussion until we receive a report from the secretariat. After that, there will be deliberation at the next NEC meeting.”
He also highlighted a resolution from the previous NEC meeting calling for further stakeholder engagement to refine the proposal.
“And not only that, there’s also a resolution in the last NEC meeting, which is today the Secretariat have also agreed on that, there will be further stakeholder engagement after the panel and deliberation by the members of the NEC.”
The governor acknowledged the unique security challenges faced by different regions, noting, “Considering the fact that virtually every state has their peculiarity in terms of the problem we are having of insecurity in our own states. Knowing fully well that we have a lot of ungoverned space in Nigeria, and also that we have a lot of deficit in terms of number of boots on ground, looking at the fact that a lot of security agencies, the police, the army and other relevant security agencies have no personnel to cover all the ungoverned spaces, that is the reason why most of us agreed that establishment of state police in Nigeria is the way forward toward addressing the problem insecurity in our own country.”
At the last NEC meeting, the governments of Kwara, Kebbi, Adamawa and the FCT were given one week to submit their reports on the proposed creation of state police.
Governor Sani said while others have complied, the FCT failed to do so, with explanations which were accepted by the council.
The council had, in September, threatened to impose decisions on any state that had not complied with the request for reports.
The push for state police comes as Nigeria grapples with severe insecurity issues, including banditry and terrorism.
The NEC’s discussions follow a broader national dialogue on policing reform initiated by President Bola Tinubu earlier in the year.
The President has long advocated for state police as part of efforts to decentralise Nigeria’s heavily centralised security apparatus.
