The House of Representatives has begun the move to end the conflicts and rivalry between security, anti-graft and safety outfits in Nigeria with amendments to the laws establishing the military, paramilitary, and agencies.
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One of the bills passed for the second reading on July 14 is to create community police, while another will subject the activities of officers and men of the Nigeria Police Force to judicial review.
These are part of the eight amendment bills recommended by the House Special Ad Hoc Committee on National Security chaired by the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila.
During the nationwide protests against police brutality and human rights abuses, codenamed #EndSARS, the House had announced its partnership with the Nigerian Bar Association and civil society organisations towards creating a new law to guide the operations of the Nigeria Police Force.
Gbajabiamila, at the plenary on October 7, 2020, spoke on the illegal activities of the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the NPF, stating that the police could no longer police themselves. He, therefore, proposed the deletion of the part of the constitution that protected the police from judicial review.
He stressed that it was time for the parliament to step in, proposing the amendment of laws that prevent interference in the affairs of the police, particularly Section 215(5) of the constitution.
Section 215 partly reads, “(3) The president or such other minister of the government of the federation as he may authorise in that behalf may give to the Inspector-General of Police such lawful directions with respect to the maintenance and securing of public safety and public order as he may consider necessary, and the Inspector-General of Police shall comply with those directives or cause them to be complied with.”
The bills, which were introduced following the House’s Special Summit on National Security held earlier in May, are also to address the crisis often caused by the overlapping mandates among the various security-related agencies.
The House, on July 13, 2021, considered and adopted the report from the summit, while Gbajabiamila, on the same day, presented the report to the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), for prosecution.
Parts of the legislation are titled ‘A Bill for an Act to Enable Effect to be Given in the Federal Republic of Nigeria to the ECOWAS Convention on Small Arms and Light Weapons, their Ammunition and Other Related Materials made in Abuja, Nigeria on the 14 June, 2006,’ and ‘A Bill for an Act to Amend the Civil Defence Corps Act No. 6 of 2007 to Institutionalise Collaboration Between the Corps and Relevant Security Agencies to Strengthen its Complementary Role in the Maintenance of Public Law and Order.’
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