By Emman Ovuakporie and Johnbosco Agbakwuru

ABUJA—-THE House of Representatives Tuesday approved the establishment of state police in the 36 states of the federation and Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory, FCT.

The approval of state police was contained in a bill seeking to alter Section 214 of the constitution to provide for establishment of state and community police in the country which passed second reading in the House.

The Bill also seeks to replace the word “force” with “service” in its nomenclature.

Speaking in his lead debate, the Sponsor of the bill, Dada Awoyele, said that there was urgent need for an amendment to the 1999 Constitution to allow the government establishment of a State Police in all the States.

According to him, the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) as presently constituted was highly centralized and very far away from the people, adding that the alteration had become necessary given the rate of insecurity in the country.