Senator representing Kebbi South senatorial district at the National Assembly, Garba Maidoki, has accused President Bola Tinubu of politicising the establishment of state police ahead of the 2027 presidential poll.
Mr Madoki vowed to reject the state police bill during plenary on Wednesday (today), citing a lack of time to study its contents.
Mr Tinubu transmitted the state police bill to the Senate on Tuesday.
“This is 146 pages of the draft bill. I’m not a lawyer. You have held a public hearing. Good practice requires that your draft be shown to the people who made presentations, that this is our final draft, whether it captures your view or not, and with explanations for why it didn’t capture your view,” said Mr Maidoki on Channels TV on Tuesday.
“The only people that have this document are the members of the National Assembly, and we were given this thing today (Tuesday), and tomorrow (Wednesday), whether we like it or not, it will be passed. No senator can stand up. We’re going to go against it on principle, but I can guarantee you that, whether we attend or not, this will be passed tomorrow (Wednesday).
“I need to take this book to my constituents and legal experts, to look at it and say this is right or this is wrong. This thing was given to us today (Tuesday). If not for the fact that a member of the National Assembly has died, this bill would have been passed today (Tuesday),” the senator explained.
Asked whether he believed in what Mr Tinubu is trying to do with the bill and whether it would help improve the country’s security situation, the lawmaker said, “No, I don’t believe so.”
“If the president wanted to fight this thing (insecurity), why did he leave it until the year of the election? I understand it’s better late than never, but you can see the politics in it,” the senator argued. “We’ve been there for three years, crying, complaining, and now, you have less than one year, that’s the time you want to change the constitution, implement the bill and make Nigeria safe? It’s very suspicious.”
