Speaker Abbas Tajudeen says the executive version of the Bill carries stronger safeguards than the one the House earlier passed

Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abbas, has defended the safeguards built into the proposed State Police Bill, warning that Nigeria must not repeat the mistake of allowing power to operate without restraint.

Abbas made the remarks in his keynote address at the National Security Roundtable of the 2026 NASS Open Week, themed “Towards a Safer Nigeria,” held at the National Assembly Library Trust Fund in Abuja on Wednesday.

Why the State Police Bill matters, according to Abbas

Abbas said the executive version of the State Police Bill, transmitted to the National Assembly by President Bola Tinubu, is more robust and comprehensive than the version the House had earlier passed. He commended Tinubu for taking on a question previous administrations avoided for three decades.

“It takes conviction to bring the most sensitive question in our federation before the whole country, and it takes humility to place that question in the hands of the legislature and the people,” he said.

He argued that a country as large and varied as Nigeria cannot be policed forever from a single command in Abuja.

“Banditry has threatened families and farmers. Kidnappers have plagued our highways. Disputes between farmers and herders have resulted in deadly clashes. Fear has overtaken our schools. These are local problems, and they need local knowledge, local presence, and local accountability,” he said.

According to Abbas, the Bill renames the Nigeria Police Force as the Federal Police Service and allows any state to establish its own State Police Service, but only after the state’s House of Assembly creates it by law and it meets national minimum standards set by the National Assembly. Federal Police will retain responsibility for federal crimes, terrorism, border security and the Federal Capital Territory, while state forces will handle ordinary law and order.

On fears that state police could become political tools, Abbas said a Commissioner of Police would be appointed on the recommendation of the National Police Council and confirmed by the State Assembly, which alone can remove the officer, and only with a two-thirds majority.

He said the Federal Police could intervene if a state force collapses or turns against citizens, but only in defined situations, in writing, for a limited period, with notice to the governor and the National Assembly within 48 hours, and always subject to the courts.

“No such step may dissolve a State Police or suspend a State’s elected institutions,” he said.

Abbas cites Germany, Canada, India in State Police Bill defence

Abbas drew on international models to support the reform, citing Germany’s sixteen state-run police forces under shared national standards, Canada’s contract-based Mounted Police arrangement with provinces, and India’s single national officer corps serving a federal structure.

“Germany shows us that many forces can still work as one, as long as the standards remain national even when the command is local,” he said. He described the United States’ eighteen thousand separate police agencies as a cautionary example of fragmentation without shared coordination, saying “only shared databases and joint centres keep so large a system working.”

He raised open questions for further legislative work, including how under-resourced states would fund their own forces, what a state must prove before receiving approval, and how federal and state forces would share intelligence.

He proposed that a National Minimum Standards Act be enacted before any state police begins operating, and that reform proceed state by state rather than all at once, “rather than switching on thirty-six new forces on the same day.“

Abbas disclosed that the House had, at Tuesday’s plenary, rescinded its earlier State Police Bill passed on 11 June, and introduced the executive version for first and second reading, referring it to the House Committee on Constitution Review.

He assured Nigerians the Bill would undergo public hearing and open scrutiny before passage, and thanked security personnel who have died in the line of duty.

“We have seen how power conducts itself in the absence of restraint, and we have no intention of repeating that error,” he said.

The National security roundtable on State Police is part of the 2026 NASS Open Week.