The House of Representatives has passed the state police bill, effectively making way for the decentralisation of the Nigerian policing architecture, while the resolution followed the voting by 289 lawmakers in favour of state police during Thursday’s plenary session.
Penpushing reports that the plenary session presided over by the Speaker, Rt Hon Tajudeen Abbas, however, recorded a mild drama, shortly after the lawmakers settled down for the business of the day, Hon Bashir Zubairu from Kaduna State, moved a point of order.
The lawmaker explained that the document on the proposed state police put together by the House Committee on Constitution Review got to the lawmakers only on Thursday afternoon.
“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 stated
Penpushing further reports that Zubairu, a member of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), was ruled out of order, allowing the process to proceed, while the Speaker took members through the clauses, voices shouting “Point of Order” could be heard, but the presiding officer ignored them.
The Speaker, before the voting began, announced that the electronic voting system was faulty, pointing out that the exercise would be conducted based on attendance, however, out of the 290 members in attendance, 289 voted in favour of state police while one voted against. The Speaker abstained from voting.
Penpushing also reports that it would be recalled that the House committed Thursday’s plenary to voting on the State Police Bill following the spike in killings, kidnappings, and banditry in the past few months.
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