The Presidential Working Group on National Policing has said the National Policing Bill is 90 per cent ready and will be transmitted to the National Assembly within two weeks.
Chairman of the Working Group and Chief of Staff to the President, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, disclosed this on Thursday while briefing journalists after a steering committee meeting at the State House, Abuja.
According to him, the bill has undergone extensive deliberations since the steering committee commenced work on August 3 and now requires only final touches before transmission.
“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 per cent ready.
“The governors have one or two observations, and we should be ready in about a week or so,” Gbajabiamila said.
He described the bill as “the most consequential bill of the administration so far.”
On concerns that states may delay passage of the Sixth Constitution Alteration Bill on state police, given that only about six states have passed the amendment out of the 36 states and the FCT, Gbajabiamila said there is a national consensus on the need for the reform.
“I see no reason why anyone will want to have a rethink on it,” he said.
The meeting was attended by the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum and Governor of Kwara State, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq; Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State; Governor Uba Sani of Kaduna State; Inspector-General of Police, Tunji Disu; and the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, represented by the Solicitor-General and Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Justice, Mrs Beatrice Jedy-Agba.
Others present were Chairman, Policy Advisory Committee, Justice Abdullahi Liman (rtd); Head, Nigeria Police Reform Secretariat, Prof. 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 and 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.