By Anthony Osae-Brown | Updated on Jun 11, 2026 at 05:44 PM
Nigerian lawmakers passed a bill that will allow states to set up their own police units in a bid to tackle rising insecurity in Africa’s most populous nation, according to local broadcaster Channels TV.
Lawmakers in the House of Representatives passed the bill with an overwhelming majority on Thursday, according to Channels TV.
The West African nation hopes a more decentralized police force will help it confront mounting insecurity on several fronts, including an Islamic insurgency and bandit attacks in the North against which it launched joint operations with the US military late last year.
Read More: US Operations in Nigeria Kill Hundreds of IS-Linked Fighters
At least 200 Islamic State fighters have been killed in those operations, the US military said earlier this week.
In addition, Nigeria is contending with clashes over water and grazing between herdsmen and farmers in its north central region, separatist agitation in the Southeast and oil pipeline vandalism in the crude-producing Niger-Delta.
The bill still has to be passed by the Nigerian senate and approved by two-thirds of the nation’s 36 state assemblies, and then assented to by President Bola Tinubu, before it can become law.