The Nigerian Senate on Wednesday approved a bill to allow states to have their own police forces, paving the way for a major reform that would reshape the policing structure of the conflict-racked nation.
The proposed constitutional change will decentralize the country’s police force, which is currently controlled by the federal government, but has been overstretched by an escalating insecurity crisis. The state police forces will operate alongside the federal police.
A lack of police presence in vast rural areas has worsened the country’s security woes, analysts say, allowing militant groups to operate without challenge. Criminal groups and jihadis have killed tens of thousands of people, according to the United Nations.
The change would allow each of the country’s 36 states to create a police force that meets a minimum national requirement while the federal police retain control of counterterrorism, border patrol, organized crime and other national security issues.
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