The House of Representatives has reiterated members’ readiness to pass the State Police Bill during Thursday’s plenary in a bid to tackle insecurity in the country.
The Deputy Speaker, Hon. Benjamin Kalu, who disclosed this during a press briefing held in Abuja after Wednesday’s plenary, urged all members to be physically present.
Hon. Kalu, who spoke on behalf of the 37 House Caucus leaders, said that the passage of State Police became imperative to stem growing cases of banditry and terrorism in Nigeria.
We decided to prioritise the issue of unbundling security-related problems, response time through the legislative tool of legislation, targeting policing. And we said, as it is today, the structure that has been agreed to by the IGP and his team, national consensus has also a reason on it, the executive has bought into it, the Governors have bought into it, that there is a need for state police.
“And the constitution as it is, if allow as it is, especially section 214 and other consequential amendments in that particular Constitution, would not birth the state police that will guarantee what we’ll be looking for in the space of security.”
According to him, the 10th Assembly Caucus has been working hard to amend the constitution with a view to prioritising state police, “especially now that we are faced with this difficulty around the country.
“So we are here to announce to Nigerians that hope is coming, that hope to have a better response time to incidents of crime is here, that we have decided to talk, that by tomorrow we’ll be voting on the Constitution and in that we’ll be prioritising state police.
“So this is us telling our supporters, our constituents across the nation, that your leaders are represented here, that the six Caucus Leaders, including the FCT 37, are here, regional leaders and zonal leaders are here, and all of us are together on this mission.
“The Speaker has asked us to come and address Nigerians to assure them that hope is coming and there is nobody stopping us from going ahead with state police. We’ve read a lot of things in the news that people are trying to stop. No, the Parliament is marching forward, and by tomorrow we’ll be concluding on this.
“This is what we have come to inform you that hope is here and by tomorrow state police will make it in our constitutional amendment. We are hoping that by the time we finish tomorrow, it will be going to the States and because we have seen the body language of the Governors of these 36 States, which is in support of State Police, they will work hand in hand with their Houses of Assembly to ensure that it is returned back to Mr. President for his assent as quickly as possible.”
To this end, he urged all the members who are currently handling oversight functions across Nigeria to cut it short and fly in, stressing that “it’s an emergency situation. They should cut it short and fly in tomorrow. We want all our members to be in the House so that will show our constituents that we are in support of state police and that security is priority on our list.“
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