Presidency to transmit Police Bill to National Assembly in two weeks

By Johnbosco Agbakwuru

ABUJA — THE Presidential Working Group said on Thursday it would transmit the National Policing Bill to the National Assembly within two weeks.

Chief of Staff to the President and Chairman of the Working Group, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, stated this while speaking to journalists after the steering committee meeting at the State House in Abuja.

He said: “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.

“The governors have one or two observations, and we should be ready in about a week or so.”

Gbajabiamilla described the bill as ‘the most consequential Bill of the administration so far’. He said it has undergone strenuous exercises in the last few weeks since the working group’s steering committee began deliberations on August 3.

Also speaking on the possibility of the states dragging their feet on the passage of the Sixth Constitution Alteration Bill (State Police), especially against the backdrop of the information that only about six states had passed the amendment out of the 36 states and the FCT, Gbajabiamila affirmed that there was a “national consensus” among Nigerians on the need for the amendments.

“I see no reason why anyone will want to have a rethink on it,” he said.

Participants at today’s meeting included the Chairman of the Governors’ Forum and Governor of Kwara State, AbdulRazak AbdulRahman, Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State, Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State, Inspector General of Police, Tunji Disu, and the Attorney General and Minister of Justice represented by the Solicitor General and Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Justice, Mrs Beatrice Jedy-Agba.

Other members of the committee were Chairman, Policy Advisory Committee, Justice Abdullahi Liman (rtd); Head, Nigeria Police Reform Secretariat, Professor Olu Ogunsakin; Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Matters (House of Representatives), Dr Lanre Smart; Senior Special Assistant to the President on Planning and Research who also doubles as the Secretary of the Committee, Nnadubem Moghalu; representative of the President of the Nigerian Bar Association; and AIG Abraham Nabhon Thomas, representing the National Security Adviser, among others.

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