Nigeria's IGP Gives Update On Presidential Directive To Withdraw Policemen From VIP's

Nigeria's Inspector General of Police Kayode Egbetokun has announced the withdrawal of 11,566 officers from VIP protection duties. This decision, mandated by President Bola Tinubu, aims to redeploy these personnel to underserved and vulnerable communities across the country, particularly in areas plagued by kidnappings and banditry. 

Egbetokun dismissed exaggerated social media claims of 120,000 officers being attached to private individuals, labeling them as misinformation. 

He emphasized that the presidential order ensures no political or personal pressure can hinder the implementation of this directive, marking a potential shift towards more effective frontline policing. 

This development comes amidst a broader security emergency declared by Tinubu, which includes plans to recruit 20,000 additional police officers and utilize national service camps for training. The move is seen as a response to recent violent incidents and a step towards addressing the manpower shortages that have hampered security efforts in rural and high-risk areas.

The inspector General of police said;

"We have already withdrawn 11,566 personnel. We are giving directives for that. I have seen some things posted on the social media misleading people and quoting figures where they say 120 thousand policemen are attached to private individuals in Nigeria. 

These are lies, not true I don't know where they got their figure from and that's a figure that has been brandished everywhere how many of us Nigerian police will attach 120 thousand policemen to private individuals? 

The recent presidential directive which withdraws policemen for VIP protection made us to discover that 11,566 policemen are engaged in VIP protection as at today In Nigeria Police Force. Of course this is not the first time we have given, I mean we're implementing these type of directives. Recently i gave instruction that Policeman should be withdrawn from private individuals and those private individual's decedents for police protections Should reapply because We saw the need to profile these individuals that are applying for police protection and we carried out that exercise During this time a number of policemen were withdrawn many of them not reassigned before this presidential order came So it's something we have been doing but in recent Presidential Order will make implementation more effective .

Now that it is presidential order there will be pressure on the IG In fact The presidential order is a cover for us to implement this directive that we have been trying to implement all these while So you can see that the Implementation will become more effective This time around Because I know nobody's going to call IG again .

Please, These are my people No governor or minister Is gonna call me My friends Family members Will not put any pressures on me Because they know it's presidential order And I'm sure They are not going to put any pressure On any of my commissioners of police because This is a Presidential Order So, the implementation Is gonna be very effective this time around and we're going to deploy these men To the areas where will need them We'll return into our front line policing function "