State assembly speakers meet, bare mind on state police, economic hardship, Rivers crisis

The quest by Nigeria to have state police received a boost on Thursday when the Speakers of the Houses of Assembly across 36 states in the country backed the ongoing constitution review exercise for its creation.

The Speakers, under the aegis of the Conference of Speakers of State Legislatures of Nigeria, took the stand in a communique issued at the end of their meeting in Abuja on Thursday.

The communique was signed by Chairman of the Conference of Speakers of State Legislatures of Nigeria, Mr Adebo Ogundoyin, who is the Speaker of the Oyo State House of Assembly.

A bill for state police is currently being considered at the National Assembly. When transmitted to the state Assemblies, the Speakers pledged their readiness to support the bill for the state police creation.

The communique read in part: “The conference strongly advocates for state policing to check the negative trend of insecurity in our country.

“To achieve this, the conference appeals to the National Assembly, Presidency and other relevant stakeholders to leverage on the ongoing constitution review exercise.”

The Conference of Speakers also acknowledged the “courage of the President Bola Tinubu on his economic policies taken so far such as the removal of petroleum product subsidy and the floating of the exchange rate.”

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They, however, maintained that “the unintended consequences of these policies are too harsh on the populace.”

The communique read further: “We therefore, urge the Federal Government and State Governments to initiate sustainable policies with equal measure of courage to ameliorate the sufferings of the people.

“The Conference observed that in spite of the constitutional provisions that grant financial autonomy to the state legislature, the implementation has been observed in breach.

“We, therefore, call on all the relevant stakeholders to comply with all the provisions in the constitution and not by breach.”

The Speakers also called for the peaceful resolution of the ongoing political crisis in Rivers State, saying: “The Conference appeals to the relevant political leaders in Rivers State to explore peaceful means to resolve the near impasse situation between the legislative and executive arms of government of the state.”

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