President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has inaugurated the Presidential Working Group on the National Policing Bill, tasked with producing a draft law to operationalise state police in Nigeria. The inauguration took place Tuesday at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, led by Chief of Staff Femi Gbajabiamila on behalf of the President. The group was formed following the National Assembly's passage of the Constitution Alteration (State Police) Bill, 2026, which establishes a constitutional basis for dual policing but does not implement it.
Tinubu stated the National Policing Bill would provide the legal framework needed to activate state police, addressing standards, accountability, federal-state coordination, human rights safeguards and fiscal conditions. He emphasized the need for the working group to deliver an implementation-ready draft without waiting for the constitutional amendment process to conclude. "The Working Group has been constituted to produce a technically robust, implementation-ready draft National Policing Bill for transmission to the National Assembly," Tinubu said.
Gbajabiamila will chair the committee, which includes the Attorney-General of the Federation Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, Nigerian Bar Association President Afam Osigwe, Nigeria Governors' Forum (NGF) Chairman, National Security Adviser, Inspector-General of Police, and the NGF Committee on State Police chairman. A secretariat will provide administrative support.
Ogun State Governor Dapo Abiodun, speaking for the NGF, affirmed governors' readiness to fast-track the bill once transmitted. He projected that if each state recruits about 6,000 officers, nearly 200,000 new personnel would be added to the national security architecture. Abiodun credited the move with responding to public demand for community policing and cited Amotekun as evidence of regional security success. Osigwe backed the initiative but urged strong legal safeguards to prevent misuse of state police powers.
The President is pushing for state police implementation before the constitutional amendment clears, yet expects a ready bill the moment it passes. The same governors now pledging swift action opposed previous attempts at police devolution when it suited their political interests. If each state hires 6,000 officers, the cost would strain budgets already struggling with basic service delivery. The working group includes no civil society or community security representatives despite the focus on public safety.
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