The Presidential Working Group on police reform has said the National Policing Bill will reach the National Assembly in about two weeks, with only final checks remaining.
Chief of Staff to the President and Chairman of the Working Group, Femi Gbajabiamila, disclosed this on Thursday while speaking to journalists after a steering committee meeting at the State House in Abuja.
“The National Policing Bill is more or less ready for transmission to the National Assembly. We will probably have one more meeting after this to cross the t’s and dot the i’s and make sure every area is covered. So, we are 90% ready,” he said.
He added that state governors had raised one or two observations, which should be addressed within a week or so.
According to a statement by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, Gbajabiamila described the proposed law as “the most consequential Bill of the administration so far.”
He said it has gone through intensive work in recent weeks, since the steering committee began deliberations on August 3.
Asked whether states might delay action on the Sixth Constitution Alteration Bill on state police, given reports that only about six of the 36 states had passed the amendment, he said there was a “national consensus” on the need for it.
“I see no reason why anyone will want to have a rethink on it,” he said.
Those at the meeting included the Chairman of the Governors’ Forum and Kwara State Governor, AbdulRazak AbdulRahman; Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun; Kaduna State Governor, Uba Sani; and the Inspector General of Police, Tunji Disu.
The Attorney General and Minister of Justice was represented by the Solicitor General and Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Justice, Mrs Beatrice Jedy-Agba.
Other members present were the Chairman of the Policy Advisory Committee, Justice Abdullahi Liman (rtd); the Head of the Nigeria Police Reform Secretariat, Professor Olu Ogunsakin; the Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Matters (House of Representatives), Dr Lanre Smart; and the Secretary of the Committee, Nnadubem Moghalu, who is also Senior Special Assistant to the President on Planning and Research.
A representative of the President of the Nigerian Bar Association also attended, as did AIG Abraham Nabhon Thomas, who represented the National Security Adviser (NSA).
