State Police

[Jibrin Ibrahim]

My concerns about the dangers of introducing state police remain



Jibrin Ibrahim, Deepening Democracy Column, Daily Trust, 26th June 2026

I think the mood of the Nation is that Nigeria needs to establish
police services at the state level to address the massive growth of
insecurity in the country. After decades of agitation, the Senate on
Wednesday passed the bill seeking to establish state police in
Nigeria. The legislation seeks to establish a state policing structure
that would operate concurrently with the existing federal police
system. Clause 17 of the bill, which deals with appointment, command,
direction and tenure, provides that while the Federal Police Service
shall be headed by the Inspector-General of Police, the State Police
Service shall be headed by a Commissioner of Police appointed by the
governor of the state, subject to confirmation by the state’s House of
Assembly. Section 17(6) states that a state governor may give lawful
written directives of a general policy nature to the Commissioner of
Police of the state on matters relating to the maintenance of public
safety and public order.



Given widespread concerns that State governors will use the State
police to repress their political opponents, Section 17(7) further
provides that the Commissioner of Police of a state shall not arrest,
detain, investigate or deploy force against any person, political
party or group for criticising the government except in accordance
with the law. This provision is intended to prevent the misuse of
state police against political opponents or critics, ensuring that any
action taken against such individuals or groups complies with due
process and existing laws.

Section 17(8) provides that the Inspector-General of Police or a
Commissioner of Police of a state may request the appropriate Police
Service Commission to review any directive considered unlawful or
inconsistent with national minimum standards. The provision further
states that nothing in the section shall oust the jurisdiction of the
courts. Section 17(10) provides that a Commissioner of Police of a
state shall not be suspended or removed except for a stated cause, in
accordance with the principles of fair hearing, on the recommendation
of the National Police Council and subject to approval by a resolution
supported by not less than two-thirds of all members of the state’s
House of Assembly.

With the Senate’s passage of the bill, it will now be transmitted to
the House of Representatives for concurrence. If approved by the lower
chamber, it will then be forwarded to the 36 State Houses of Assembly
for ratification. For the constitutional amendment to take effect, it
must be approved by at least two-thirds of the states, which
translates to 24 state assemblies.

The Bill states that: “No existing state, local, community, vigilante,
neighbourhood, traffic or other security outfits shall, by reason only
of this Act, become a State Police Service or exercise police powers
or bear firearms unless authorised in accordance with this
Constitution and an Act of the National Assembly,” the section states.
The provision effectively means that existing regional security
outfits such as Amotekun, Ebube Agu and Hisbah cannot automatically
become state police agencies and will not be permitted to exercise
police powers or carry firearms under the proposed law.

Section 15(10) of the bill provides that the Federal Police Service
may temporarily intervene in the internal security affairs of a state
and assume specified operational responsibilities, including the
temporary operational command of a State Police Service. Under Section
15(10)(a), federal intervention may occur where there is an actual or
imminent breakdown of public order or public safety that the State
Police Service is unable or unwilling to contain.

As a student of and believer in federalism, I fully support the
principle that federal political systems should have police forces
controlled by the federating units – states, and in the past, I have
strongly campaigned for State Police. Today, I am very frightened of
the idea because the evidence that it would be abused is massive in
spite of the assurances provided above. . Nonetheless, widespread
insecurity in the country has pushed many Nigerians into supporting
the idea of a State Police based on the justification that states are
closer to local dynamics of insecurity and might be more effective in
combatting them. The reasoning is that members of the police, being
local and therefore knowledgeable about the community, would be more
effective in fighting crime, terrorism, civil unrest and insurgency.
The key idea, therefore, is that they would know or be able to easily
find out the bad boys and girls and deal with them. In my view, that
is where the trouble begins; who will define the bad boys and girls?

State police would be established according to the wishes of governors
even if the proposed law provides some constraints. For state
governors, the bad boys are clear and they fall into two categories.
The first category comprises politicians who want to contest state
power with the governors or their chosen successors, for those in
their second term. The second category consists of all persons who
dare to criticise the governors or question their misdeeds. Over the
years, many critics, including journalists and civil society
activists, have been placed in arbitrary detention for daring to speak
the truth about their governors. The governors cajole law enforcement
offices to “deal” with their perceived enemies, without having a
police force totally under their control. I am convinced that most
(not all) governors would jail all their “enemies” if they have police
forces they can control totally.

When in 2018 there was a summit to consider the establishment of State
Police, there was a counter argument by the late Abubakar Tsav, a
retired police commissioner, that the “establishment of state police
will signal the beginning of the disintegration of the country,” as
governors would use the institution “against their perceived political
opponents.” State and federal police commands are also likely to work
at cross-purposes, he added.

My additional reasons for concern are that we have very serious ethnic
and religious divides in the country at this time and many governors
believe that if they have their own police, they can deal with the
other. For example, the pastoralists and farmers conflicts have been
intensifying in many states and some governors have clear proclivities
of seeking to expel or protect pastoralists in their states, opening
the doors to a new dimension of identity conflicts that would deepen
the crisis facing the Nigerian state today. As Commissioner Tsav
argued in 2018: “Our politicians are not civilised enough and tolerant
of opposing views and cannot preside over a competent and impartial
police force.”

I have heard people argue that currently, the Nigerian Police Force
are direct puppets of the president and they do exactly what they are
told to do in dealing with the president’s enemies, so State Police
could be a counter weight to presidential control of the Nigeria
Police Force. I think it’s uncharitable to argue that the Nigeria
Police are completely partisan in their actions. Federal institutions
are, in general, much more capable of handling issues in an
even-handed manner, relative to state-level institutions. The more
effective separation of powers between the executive, legislature and
judiciary at the federal level, in relation to the state level, means
that there are more effective control measures. The National Assembly,
for example, can call the Inspector General of Police to order in a
way that no State House of Assembly can do with any institution
obeying the state governor.

I know that the structure of the police is defective, as a significant
slice of the police budget is consumed at the headquarters and very
limited resources go to State Commands where most police operations
actually take place. State Police Commands then become dependent on
state governors, who give them money and in return get the Command to
do their bidding. It is however easier to address this problem in
comparison to a fully state police force.



The problem we have is that the police are not as effective as they
should be and the way forward is to improve their efficacy. One of the
core problems is that about 150,000 of the 350,000 of the nation’s
police force are engaged in VIP protection, rather than routine
policing. Every Police IG has promised to stop renting out police
officers to those who can pay for their services but failed to do so.
Successive presidential directives that police personnel attached to
unauthorised persons and VIPs in the country be withdrawn and deployed
to confront the security challenges in the nation have been
disregarded. The police are ineffective because too many of them are
not available to do core police work, as they spend their time in the
service of a few privileged Nigerians. President Tinubu should start
by addressing this challenge.



Professor Jibrin Ibrahim
Senior Fellow
Centre for Democracy and Development, Abuja
Follow me on twitter @jibrinibrahim17