The House of Representatives has passed the highly anticipated state police bill, effectively clearing a major legislative hurdle for the decentralization of Nigeria’s policing structure.
The breakthrough came during Thursday’s plenary session when 289 lawmakers voted overwhelmingly in favor of the bill. The high-stakes session was presided over by the Speaker of the House, Tajudeen Abbas.
The green chamber had dedicated Thursday’s entire session to voting on the constitutional amendment following a worrisome spike in killings, kidnappings, and banditry across the country in recent months.
However, the session was not without its fair share of drama. Shortly after the lawmakers settled down, Kaduna lawmaker Bashir Zubairu raised a point of order, complaining that the crucial document from the House Committee on Constitution Review had only just been handed to them.
“Mr Speaker, this document was only made available to lawmakers in the chambers, and we are yet to go through it. We cannot do justice to it because we have not gone through it,” Zubairu argued.
Despite his protest, the African Democratic Congress, ADC lawmaker was ruled out of order by the Speaker, allowing the legislative process to move forward immediately.
As Speaker Abbas guided the house through the various clauses of the bill, background voices shouting “Point of Order” could be heard echoing through the chambers, but the presiding officer ignored the interruptions and pushed on.
Before the historic split could happen, Abbas announced that the chamber’s electronic voting system was faulty, forcing the exercise to be conducted manually based on attendance. In the end, out of 290 members present, 289 voted yes, one voted against, and the Speaker abstained.
By Afolabi Mustapha
