The Senatorial Candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, for Anambra Central, Hon Ferdinand Dozie Nwankwo, says the coming of Mr Nnanna Oji Ama to Anambra State as the new Police Commissioner has come at a strategic time when the conversation is about states having their own police.
Nwankwo, Founder of the popular Dozie Nwankwo Foundation, stated this while welcoming the new Police Commissioner who is from neighbouring Ebonyi State.
It will be recalled that the National Assembly recently okayed a Bill for states to have their own police, owing to long standing complaints that governors, as Chief Security Officers of their states, are often powerless in certain situations as they don’t have full authority over the police.
As of now the situation is that Nigeria is closer than ever to having state police, but it’s not operational yet.
Both chambers of the National Assembly have passed the Sixth Alterations Bill, with the Senate Passing it on June 24, 2026; while the House of Representatives Passed it on July 23, 2026, with 289 in support, with one abstention, zero against.
The bill was transmitted as an Executive Bill by President Bola Tinubu and replaces the decades-old unitary Nigeria Police Force with a dual policing model
The constitutional amendment still needs approval by at least two-thirds of all 36 State Houses of Assembly after which each state must pass its own law and meet national minimum standards before launching.
Supporters argue a centralized Nigeria Police Force is overstretched by insurgency, banditry, kidnapping, herder-farmer clashes, among others.
Governors say they are held accountable for security but lack control over police.
But lending his voice to the argument, Nwankwo, former House of Representatives member that represented Anaocha, Njikoka, Dunukofia Federal Constituency, said allowing states to have their own police would be the final piece of the puzzle as crime would be better fought by those who were familiar with not only the terrain but the culture of the people.
He therefore saw the coming of an Igbo Commissioner of Police to Anambra as timely and would serve as a kind of test case for the move to have state police.
Nwankwo expressed happiness with the background and experience of CP Nnanna Oji Ama, and, while assuring him of the cooperation of the people of the state, hoped that his exploits in Anambra would further justify the clamour for state police.
“His coming to Anambra is therefore timely and strategic and it’s my hope that it will all end in praise and justify the yearning by most Nigerians for state police,” Nwankwo averred, while welcoming the new CP to the state.
