The House of Representatives was engulfed in a heated session on Thursday as opposition lawmakers staged a walkout during the consideration of the Constitution Alteration Bill on the establishment of state police, protesting what they described as a violation of parliamentary procedure.
The protest erupted after Speaker Tajudeen Abbas adopted a voice vote to approve the bill instead of considering its 26 clauses individually, despite repeated attempts by members of the minority caucus to raise objections.
Minority Leader, Frederick Agbedi, sought recognition on several occasions to raise a point of order but was not acknowledged before the Speaker called for a voice vote on the proposed legislation.
Following the vote, Abbas declared that the “ayes” had carried the motion, prompting opposition lawmakers to leave the Green Chamber in protest.
Addressing members after the walkout, the Speaker defended the procedure, insisting that the constitutional requirement for the bill’s passage had already been met.
According to him, 276 lawmakers physically signed the attendance register in support of the state police proposal, while an additional 35 members participated through online voting, bringing the total number of supporters to 311.
He noted that the Constitution requires the backing of at least two-thirds of members of the House—240 lawmakers—for the bill to pass, stressing that the threshold had been comfortably exceeded.
Speaking with journalists after the plenary, Agbedi clarified that the minority caucus was not opposed to the creation of state police but objected to the manner in which the legislation was processed.
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He maintained that the bill deserved clause-by-clause consideration in line with legislative practice, arguing that the Speaker’s decision to bypass that process denied lawmakers the opportunity to scrutinise its provisions.
The state police bill is among several constitutional amendment proposals currently before the National Assembly aimed at restructuring Nigeria’s security architecture in response to persistent insecurity across the country.
For years, governors, traditional rulers, security experts and civil society organisations have advocated the establishment of state police, arguing that a decentralised policing system would improve intelligence gathering, strengthen community policing and enhance responses to local security challenges.
However, opponents of the proposal have warned that state-controlled police could be exploited by governors for political purposes, including intimidating opponents and influencing electoral processes, unless strong constitutional safeguards are put in place.
As a constitutional amendment, the bill must secure the approval of at least two-thirds of members of both chambers of the National Assembly before proceeding to the next stage, where it will require endorsement by no fewer than 24 state Houses of Assembly before it can become law.