THE Presidential Working Group has said the National Policing Bill is almost ready for transmission to the National Assembly and is expected to be forwarded to lawmakers within two weeks.
News Point Nigeria reports that the Chief of Staff to the President and Chairman of the Working Group, Femi Gbajabiamila, disclosed this on Thursday while speaking to journalists after the steering committee meeting at the State House in Abuja.
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“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,” he was quoted as saying in a statement from the Presidency.
“The governors have one or two observations, and we should be ready in about a week or so,” he added.
Gbajabiamila, according to the statement signed by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, described the bill as “the most consequential Bill of the administration so far”.
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He said the proposed legislation had undergone strenuous exercises in the last few weeks since the Working Group’s steering committee began deliberations on August 3.
Speaking on the possibility of states dragging their feet on the passage of the Sixth Constitution Alteration Bill on state police, particularly amid reports that only about six states had passed the amendment out of the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, 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 added.
The meeting was attended by the Chairman of the 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 and Minister of Justice, who was represented by the Solicitor-General and Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Justice, Mrs Beatrice Jedy-Agba.
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Other members of the committee include the Chairman of the Policy Advisory Committee, Justice Abdullahi Liman (retd.); Head of the Nigeria Police Reform Secretariat, Olu Ogunsakin; Special Adviser to the President on National Assembly Matters (House of Representatives), Lanre Smart; and Senior Special Assistant to the President on Planning and Research, Nnadubem Moghalu, who also serves as Secretary of the Committee.
A representative of the President of the Nigerian Bar Association and AIG Abraham Thomas, representing the National Security Adviser, were also among the committee members.
