Every public debate on state police in Nigeria opens with the same misframing: that decentralised policing is a foreign import, a novelty pushed by southern governors, an experiment whose precedent must be borrowed from the United States or Brazil. The historical record contradicts the framing on every count. From 1886 to 1966 — eighty years that span chartered company rule, the two Protectorates, the Amalgamation, the colonial regions and the First Republic — Nigeria was policed by sub-national forces. The centralised Nigeria Police Force in its present configuration is not the original; it is the post-coup consolidation. The Sixth Alteration Bill passed by the House of Representatives on 11 June 2026 — and now before the Senate and the State Houses of Assembly — is not the founding of something new. It is the partial return of something old.
The colonial lineage, 1886–1914. The story begins in 1886 with the Royal Niger Company Constabulary, raised at Lokoja under the chartered company of Sir George Goldie to police the Niger and Benue trading factories and enforce the company's monopoly. It was a private corporate force exercising sovereign powers under the Royal Charter of 10 July 1886 — the only period in Nigerian history when a commercial company lawfully commanded armed police. In 1891 the Foreign Office created the Oil Rivers Protectorate (reconstituted as the Niger Coast Protectorate in 1893) and the Niger Coast Constabulary was raised at Calabar under Consul Sir Claude Macdonald, drawing recruits from Sierra Leone, the Gold Coast and the Niger Delta itself. By 1894 the Constabulary had detachments at Bonny, Brass, Old Calabar, Sapele and Warri. When the British government revoked the Royal Niger Company's charter on 1 January 1900, the RNC Constabulary was split: its military wing became the West African Frontier Force, its police wing the Northern Nigeria Regiment and Police under the new High Commissioner Frederick Lugard at Zungeru and later Kaduna. The Niger Coast Constabulary was absorbed in 1906 into the Southern Nigeria Police when the Lagos Colony was merged with the Protectorate of Southern Nigeria.
Three forces at Amalgamation, one force by 1930. At the 1914 Amalgamation Nigeria had three police forces — Lagos Police, Southern Nigeria Police, and Northern Nigeria Police — operating under separate ordinances. Lugard, now Governor-General, did not consolidate them. The Southern and Northern forces were merged into a single Nigeria Police Force in 1930, but this was a colonial command structure layered above the older system: the Native Authority Police of the Northern Region (the dogarai and yan doka under the Emirs), the Local Government Police of the Western Region (sometimes called Akodi or Olopa Ibile), and a smaller body in the Eastern Region continued to operate alongside the NPF until 1966. At Independence on 1 October 1960 Nigeria had a federal force and three regional forces — the constitutional norm at the founding of the Republic was multi-tier policing.
The military consolidation, 1966–1972. The centralisation that produced today's NPF was a military act, not a democratic one. On 24 May 1966 General Aguiyi-Ironsi promulgated the Constitution (Suspension and Modification) Decree No. 34, abolishing the federation and converting the Regions into Provinces under a unitary government in Lagos. Decree 34 was reversed within months by the counter-coup of 29 July 1966 and the return to a federal structure, but the policing consolidation it had begun was not. Between 1966 and 1972 the Native Authority and Local Government police forces were progressively absorbed into the NPF; the Western Region force was dissolved last. On 1 April 1972 General Yakubu Gowon completed the merger by decree: the NPF became Nigeria's sole police force. The 1979 Constitution under Shehu Shagari constitutionalised the consolidation at Section 194; the 1999 Constitution carried it forward verbatim at Section 214: 'There shall be a Police Force for Nigeria, which shall be known as the Nigeria Police Force, and… no other police force shall be established for the Federation or any part thereof.'
Three decades of failed reform. Every serious constitutional review since 1999 has recommended reversing Section 214. The Justice Mohammed Uwais Electoral Reform Committee (2008) recommended state police as part of decoupling electoral security from federal command. The Belgore Committee on Constitutional Review (2001), the Justice Alfa Belgore Committee (2011) and the Justice Lawal Uwais review of the Police Act all reached the same conclusion. The 2014 National Conference convened by President Goodluck Jonathan, attended by 492 delegates across six weeks, recommended state and community policing as one of its core 600 resolutions; the Confab Report was never implemented. In the absence of legal reform, the regions improvised: the South-West launched Amotekun (Operation Western Nigeria Security Network) on 9 January 2020; the South-East created Ebubeagu in 2021; Kano, Kaduna, Zamfara and Bauchi maintain Hisbah boards as a parallel sharia-enforcement force; Benue and Plateau have community guards; Lagos and Rivers fund the NPF directly through state security trust funds, effectively buying back operational control of forces they cannot lawfully command.
From NEC endorsement to the floor of the House. At the 14 February 2024 National Economic Council meeting chaired by Vice-President Kashim Shettima, all 36 state governors endorsed in principle the creation of state police forces; Borno's Babagana Zulum and Lagos's Babajide Sanwo-Olu were among the most explicit. The NEC mandated a committee to draft constitutional amendments. The Attorney-General Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, led the drafting through 2024–2025; the Deputy Speaker and Chairman of the House Committee on Constitution Review, Benjamin Kalu, carried it through the lower chamber. The bill was transmitted to the National Assembly in early 2026 and underwent public hearings across the six geopolitical zones in March–May 2026.
Passage — 11 June 2026. On Thursday 11 June 2026, the House of Representatives passed the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (Sixth Alteration) Bill, 2026 — formally titled 'A Bill for an Act to Alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 to Provide for the Establishment of State Police; and for Related Matters' — at consideration of the Committee of the Whole presided over by Speaker Tajudeen Abbas. The vote was conducted manually by show of hands: approximately 288 lawmakers voted in favour, four against. The bill scaled second reading in the Senate the same week, where governors and former Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila attended plenary to lobby senators, and clause-by-clause voting in the upper chamber commenced on 24 June 2026. The bill still requires Senate concurrence, ratification by at least 24 of the 36 State Houses of Assembly (the two-thirds constitutional-alteration threshold under Section 9(2)), and presidential assent before it becomes part of the Constitution.
What the Sixth Alteration Bill actually does. The bill is narrow constitutional surgery — not a new Police Act. It rewrites four sections of the 1999 Constitution and leaves the rest of policing to subsidiary federal and state legislation.
Section 214 (rewritten). The single-force monopoly is replaced. The new Section 214 formally establishes two tiers — the Federal Police and the State Police — and empowers the National Assembly to prescribe the structure, organisation, administration and powers of the Federal Police, and to set the framework, minimum standards and guidelines for State Police Services.
State activation clause. No State Police shall commence operations unless (i) established by a law passed by the relevant State House of Assembly, and (ii) certified as meeting the national minimum standards prescribed by an Act of the National Assembly. Until that certification, the Federal Police continues to perform policing functions in that state.
Federal-intervention limits. The Federal Police may only intervene in a state's internal security in three defined circumstances: a complete breakdown of law and order, on the request of the Governor, or where the State Police becomes unable to function due to administrative, financial or other challenges. This narrows what is today an unlimited federal command over every square kilometre.
Section 215 (rewritten — appointments). The Inspector-General of Police is appointed by the President on the advice of the Nigeria Police Council from among serving members of the Federal Police, subject to confirmation by the National Assembly. A State Commissioner of Police is appointed by the Governor on the advice of the Nigeria Police Council from among serving members of the State Police, subject to confirmation by the State House of Assembly.
Operational command of State Police. Governors are empowered to issue lawful directives to State Commissioners on public safety and order. Where a Commissioner believes a directive is unlawful or inconsistent with accepted policing standards, the matter is referred to the Nigeria Police Council, whose decision is final. This is the political compromise: it tilts day-to-day command to the Governor while reserving a constitutional brake against weaponisation.
Section 84 (consequential). References to the 'National Police Council and the Federal Police Service Commission' are replaced by the 'Nigeria Police Council and the Police Service Commission.'
What the bill does NOT do. It does not abolish the NPF, it does not transfer existing federal officers into state forces automatically, it does not fund the new state forces (funding is left to the State Houses of Assembly), and it does not create concurrent criminal jurisdiction — both forces police the same Criminal Code and Penal Code under federal legislation.
Before and after — the structural shift. The bill's effect is sharpest when set against the 1999 status quo, clause by clause.
Force structure. Before: a single national NPF under Section 214, with the express bar that 'no other police force shall be established for the Federation or any part thereof.' After: two tiers — Federal Police and State Police — each constitutionally recognised.
Authority to establish. Before: federal only, by Act of the National Assembly. After: federal (National Assembly) plus state (House of Assembly), subject to national minimum standards.
Activation. Before: automatic — the NPF is the only force. After: a State Police only activates after a State law and national certification; until then the Federal Police continues to police that state.
IGP appointment. Before: President, on advice of the Nigeria Police Council, subject to confirmation (Section 215(1)). After: the same — but explicitly from among serving Federal Police officers, with National Assembly confirmation.
Commissioner of Police appointment. Before: the IGP posts a Commissioner to each State Command; the Governor has no role in selection. After: the Governor appoints the State CP on the advice of the Nigeria Police Council from serving State Police officers; the State House of Assembly confirms.
Command of the State CP. Before: under Section 215(4), the Governor may give 'lawful directions,' but the CP may insist on referral to the President — a clause used to nullify gubernatorial authority in practice. After: the Governor issues lawful directives directly; disputes are referred to the Nigeria Police Council, whose decision is final.
Federal deployment into a State. Before: unlimited — the NPF operates in every State as of right. After: limited to three triggers — complete breakdown of order, Governor's request, or State Police inability to function.
Funding. Before: 100% federal (Police Trust Fund and Consolidated Revenue). After: federal funds the Federal Police; State Houses of Assembly appropriate for the State Police.
Oversight. Before: Federal Police Service Commission and National Police Council. After: a Police Service Commission (Federal) plus 36 State Police Service Commissions, with the Nigeria Police Council coordinating.
Sub-national forces today. Before: NSCDC, Amotekun, Ebubeagu and Hisbah — quasi-legal workarounds without arrest-and-charge powers. After: the State Police absorbs the legal space these bodies were filling, with formal arrest, investigation and prosecution authority.
The case for state police rests on four propositions. First, scale: 371,800 federal officers cannot police 220 million citizens across 923,768 square kilometres from a single command in Abuja. Second, intelligence: state and local knowledge is the only effective response to banditry in Zamfara, kidnapping in Kaduna, IPOB enforcement actions in Imo and Anambra, farmer–herder violence in Benue and Plateau, oil bunkering in Rivers and Bayelsa, and ritual killings in Ondo. Third, accountability: the IGP commands no force whose senior officers depend on a Governor's political survival, so federal policing is captured by federal politics. Fourth, comparison: every other large federation — the United States, Canada, Australia, Germany, India, Brazil, Mexico — operates state or provincial police forces, and Nigeria is the outlier.
The case against rests on four counter-propositions. First, abuse: state forces will be weaponised against opposition parties — the Western Region operations of 1962–1965 are invariably cited. Second, cost: poor states cannot afford to recruit, train, arm and pay a standing police force; the bill leaves funding entirely to State Houses of Assembly. Third, coordination: inter-state cooperation will collapse on the first hot pursuit across a state line. Fourth, hierarchy: the Inspector-General of Police will be reduced to a notional figurehead in his own service.
What still has to happen. The Sixth Alteration Bill is approximately one-third of the way through the constitutional gauntlet. House passage on 11 June 2026 is the first hurdle. The Senate must pass it by a two-thirds majority of all members (109 senators — at least 73 yeas required); clause-by-clause voting opened on 24 June 2026. The harmonised text must then be transmitted to all 36 State Houses of Assembly, of which at least 24 must pass it by simple majority of all members within the period prescribed. The President assents last. The 1999 Constitution has been altered four times in the Fourth Republic (2010, 2011, 2017, 2023) — none of those alteration packages has touched Section 214. If the Sixth Alteration clears all three stages, it will be the first amendment in Nigeria's constitutional history that decentralises a power consolidated by military decree.
What the bill does not settle. The bill is a constitutional shell. The hard architecture — recruitment standards, weapons schedules, training curricula, transfer rules for serving NPF officers, the cost-sharing formula between FAAC allocations and State own-revenue, a federal residual force for inter-state crimes (kidnapping, oil bunkering, cybercrime), the rules governing hot pursuit across State lines, conflict-resolution between a State CP and the State Director of the DSS, and the disciplinary and pension regime for State Police officers — all of that is left to a subsequent Police Reform Act and 36 separate State Police Establishment Laws. Lagos, Ekiti, Ondo, Anambra and Rivers have draft State Police bills already prepared. Northern states have not.
The historical reading. What the record establishes is narrower than the political argument. It is that the consolidated NPF is fifty-four years old. The multi-tier system it replaced was eighty years old at the moment of its abolition and had functioned, in some form, under the Royal Niger Company, the two Protectorates, the colonial regions, the First Republic and the early years of military rule. The Sixth Alteration Bill, if it clears the Senate and 24 State Houses of Assembly, does not introduce state police to Nigeria. It restores them — under tighter constitutional safeguards than the system Gowon dissolved in 1972.
Related on this register: The Nigeria Police Brutality Register, 1929 — present · Police Checkpoints · The Nigeria Police Force institutional line · Inspectors-General of Police.