Sunday Southerner – Main lead

Only Kano, Bauchi, Katsina, Abia, Borno, Ebonyi, Kogi, Ondo, Sokoto, Lagos, Jigawa and Niger state are yet to pass the constitutional amendment to enable states set up their individual police structures.

But their delays means nothing as the threshold of 24 states, representing two thirds of the 36 states required to amend the 1999 constitution has been achieved.

Legally, the quest for states to have their own Police is now constitutionally a done deal. When the Delta State House of Assembly passed the amendment on October 23, 2026, it brought the number of states that passed the amendment to the unassailable number of 24.

The 24 states whose houses of assembly have approved the amendment are: Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bayelsa, Benue, Cross River and Delta. Others are Edo, Ekiti, Enugu, Gombe, Imo, Kaduna, Kebbi, Kwara, Nasarawa and Ogun.

The rest are Osun, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers, Taraba, Yobe and Zamfara.

As soon as National Assembly receives the approved resolutions from the state assemblies, it will be transmitted to the President for assent under Section 9 of the Constitution.

Afterwards, the draft National Policing Bill and related framework will be finalized and passed to set national standards, oversight, and operational rules.

However, it does translate into automatic pathway for states to proceed with establishing its own Police. Individual states wishing to operate a state police service must enact their own state laws and be formally certified as meeting national minimum standards before operations can begin.

An analysis of the zonal endorsement shows that Northwest, the largest in population and numbers with seven states, had three states – Zamfara, Kaduna and Kebbi – that have passed the amendment. In North Central also with six states, Benue, Kwara, Nassarawa and Plateau states passed the amendment.

In the North East, four of its six states – Adamawa, Gombe, Taraba and Yobe – passed the amendment.

For the South East, only Anambra and Imo of its five states have endorsed State Police. In the South West, only Lagos and Ekiti of its six states are yet to pass the amendment.

However in the South South, all the six states – Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo, Rivers – have passed the amendment.