*Present constitution alteration bill to senate
Deji Elumoye in Abuja
Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu and 75 other Senators on Thursday threw their weight behind the creation of State Police as a way of curbing myriad of security challenges facing the nation.
They have therefore presented a Bill before the Senate for the alteration of the 1999 Constitution to create room for the establishment of state police.
Cited as Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (Alteration) Bill, 2018, it was sponsored by Ekweremadu(Enugu West) and 75 other Senators.
The Bill after it was announced at plenary by the Deputy Senate Leader, Senator Ibn Na’allah (Kebbi South), passed the first reading and by next week it will be ready for second reading at plenary.
It will thereafter be referred to the Committee on Constitutional Amendment which incidentally is headed by Ekweremadu, the main sponsor of the Bill that will now organise public hearing on the Bill.
With 76 Senators as sponsors of the Bill, the Bill is expected to be passed in a record time as over two third of the Senators are backing the Bill.
The Senate is made up of 109 members At the moment, the seats of two Senators – Mustapha Buka (Katsina North) and Ali Walali (Bauchi South) – who lost their lives to ill-health are yet to be filled through bye-election by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, while Senator Joshua Dariye (Plateau Central) is serving a 14-year jail term at Kuje Prisons in Abuja.
