State governors have intensified pressure on the National Assembly, the 36 State Houses of Assembly and the Presidency, to fast-track the passage and assent to the state police bill, ahead of campaigns for the 2027 general elections, even as the process now faces the threat of a legal challenge.

The House of Representatives passed the Constitution Alteration Bill last Thursday. It seeks to establish state police services across the country. The vote followed weeks of lobbying by governors, aimed squarely at Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Speaker Tajudeen Abbas.

Sources within the National Assembly told Daily Sun that the governors want a harmonisation committee set up by Akpabio and Abbas without delay, to reconcile the Senate and House versions of the bill into one agreed text.

Governors are also worried that the National Assembly’s annual recess and the distractions of campaign season, could stall the process altogether.

Once harmonised, the bill will return to both chambers for final adoption, before proceeding to the 36 State Houses of Assembly for concurrence.

Multiple sources told Daily Sun that governors have already reached out to their respective Speakers, with instructions that concurrence must be secured within one month, after which the bill will be sent back to the National Assembly for onward transmission to the President for assent.

Daily Sun gathered that governors have also opened a separate line of engagement with aides to President Bola Tinubu, urging that assent be given without delay once the harmonised bill returns to him.

However, the manner in which the House passed the bill, through a voice vote rather than a clause by clause count, has now drawn the threat of litigation.

The Tanimu Turaki-led faction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said it was considering a court challenge to the process. The bloc’s spokesman, Ini Ememobong, told Daily Sun that the National Assembly had shown a pattern of disregard for procedure, recalling similar objections raised during the passage of the Electoral Act.

He argued that lawmakers gave what amounted to a blanket approval on the bill, rather than voting clause by clause as he insisted that the Constitution requires.

He maintained that the law exists for Nigerians rather than for legislators and encouraged citizens and political parties alike to pursue legal means of challenging any provisions they consider objectionable, noting that the minority caucus has already raised internal objections to sections of the bill.

A former member of the National Assembly, Sergius Ogun, who represented Esan North East and Esan South West Federal Constituency of Edo State in the Eighth and Ninth Assembly, also criticised the resort to a voice vote, describing it as an aberration.

He recalled that electronic voting had been used on both previous occasions when constitutional amendments were passed during his time in the National Assembly.

Ogun said he was surprised to see the Speaker referencing members who had signed in and those who could not attend, without a clause by clause reading of the bill.

He said he could not predict how a court challenge might turn out, acknowledging that public confidence in the judiciary has been shaken in the past, but nonetheless, encouraged anyone able to challenge the process to do so, if only to enrich the country’s jurisprudence.

Daily Sun further gathered that governors want the process concluded quickly for a practical reason. Several states already run informal security structures, including vigilante groups and community watch outfits, which governors are hoping to convert into formal state police units once the constitutional cover is in place, well ahead of the 2027 polls.

Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, disclosed weeks ago that governors had agreed to move together, with their assemblies passing the bill the same day it reaches them.

Senate Leader, Opeyemi Bamidele, echoed this, saying governors would demonstrate their support through the speed of concurrence at state level.

Many Speakers of State Houses of Assembly have already pledged support ahead of the bill’s arrival, describing it as a milestone in the constitutional review process.

Civil society groups have raised separate concerns, focused mainly on processes. The Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre has called for public hearings across the six geopolitical zones before the reform proceeds further, but no such hearings have taken place and key details, including the funding model for state police, remain undisclosed to the public.

The bill passed with 311 votes in favour, comfortably clearing the two thirds threshold required for constitutional amendments, with Speaker Abbas presiding as chairman of the Committee of the Whole.

Minority lawmakers walked out shortly after, with Minority Leader, Fredrick Agbedi, maintaining that the process ignored constitutional requirements.

With governors pressing for speed at every stage, from harmonisation to concurrence to presidential assent and opposition figures now threatening to test the process in court, the coming weeks will determine whether the bill becomes law before 2027 campaigns begin or becomes entangled in litigation that could delay it further. (The Sun)

Update news