No fewer than 30 state Houses of Assembly have approved the Constitution Alteration Bill for the establishment of State Police in Nigeria.
Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele (APC-Ekiti) disclosed this during plenary in Abuja on Wednesday, November 4, 2026.
The bill is titled: “A Bill for an Act to Alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, to provide for the Establishment of State Police Services and for Related Matters.”
Bamidele said Adamawa State House of Assembly was among the latest to approve the bill, bringing the total number of approvals to 30.
He said that the figure surpassed the constitutional requirement for alteration of the constitution.
The lawmaker described the development as a clear indication of the popularity of the bill among Nigerians through their elected representatives in the state houses of assembly.
Bamidele said: “So far, we already have 30 states showing the popularity of this bill among Nigerians through their representatives in the state houses of assembly.
“And we believe that the remaining six states will get back to the national assembly before the deadline of November 15.
“But so far, I want to say that this is a very happy development for our democracy and for the government and people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“We already got more than two-thirds of the states needed, but I don’t think there are any state that want to be left out of this epoch-making development.”
Explaining the process, Bamidele said three key words were used in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, in the alteration process.
The Senate Leader added: “The first word is passage, the second word is approval and the third word is assent.
“The passage of the bill is meant to be done by the National Assembly, which was done; approval is meant to be done by at least two-thirds of the 36 state houses of assembly in the country, and assent is to be given by the President to complete this process.”
Bamidele listed the 30 states as Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Borno, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Ekiti, Enugu, Gombe, Imo, Jigawa, and Kaduna.
Others are Katsina, Kebbi, Kogi, Kwara, Lagos, Nasarawa, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Plateau, Rivers, Sokoto, Taraba, Yobe, and Zamfara.
State police: Six assemblies face November 15 approval deadline
Bamidele also clarified the timeline given to the state assemblies for consideration of the bill, saying the reason for the timeline was to enable the national assembly to transmit the bill to President Bola Tinubu on time.
He said: “The reason we have to do that, which we are also emphasising now, is that we need to transmit the bill to Mr President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, any time from November 15.
“So, we believe that the six states that are left would do the needful between now and that period.”
The lawmaker added that at the expiration of the November 15 deadline, the National Assembly would transmit the bill to Tinubu for assent in line with the provisions of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).
The bill seeks to decentralise policing in Nigeria by empowering states to establish their own police services to complement the Nigeria Police Force in tackling insecurity.
If assented to by the president, the bill will become law and pave the way for the establishment of state police across Nigeria.
- Senate suspends bills for new universities after FG ban - November 4, 2026
- 2027: Court sacks Senator Karimi as APC candidate for Kogi West - November 4, 2026
- NASS sends state police bill to Tinubu Nov 15 as 30 state assemblies approve constitution amendment - November 4, 2026
