{"id":45760,"date":"2026-09-17T12:54:35","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T10:54:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=45760"},"modified":"2026-09-17T12:54:35","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T10:54:35","slug":"nigeria-sends-state-police-amendment-bill-to-state-assemblies-for-ratification","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/nigeria-sends-state-police-amendment-bill-to-state-assemblies-for-ratification\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria sends state police amendment bill to state assemblies for ratification \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Nigeria&#8217;s parliament has sent a constitutional amendment bill that would establish state police forces to the country&#8217;s 36 state assemblies \u200cfor ratification, advancing a key security overhaul by President Bola Tinubu as he faces mounting pressure over worsening insecurity ahead of January elections.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>National Assembly clerk Kamoru Ogunlana said the Constitution (Sixth Alteration) Bill, 2026, which \u2060contains provisions for state police, has been cleared by federal lawmakers and sent to Nigeria&#8217;s 36 state assemblies for consideration.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Ogunlana said the National Assembly had asked states to return their resolutions within 30 days, but added that the timeframe was administrative and not constitutionally binding.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The bill must be approved by at least two-thirds of state assemblies, \u200cor \u206024 of the 36 states, before it can become law.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Supporters say state police would improve responses to local security threats by decentralising policing powers from the federal government.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Other constitutional \u2060amendment proposals still awaiting final approval include local government autonomy, independent candidacy, reserved legislative seats for women and citizenship by investment.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>If \u2060ratified by the required number of state assemblies, it would be one of the most sweeping changes \u2060to Nigeria&#8217;s security and governance framework since the country returned to civilian rule in 1999.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":30483,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-45760","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Nigeria sends State Police Bill to 36 Assemblies","published_date":"2026-09-17 12:54:11","news_description":"Nigeria sends State Police Bill to 36 Assemblies","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/45760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/45760\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45762,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/45760\/revisions\/45762"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=45760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}