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Dismisses Claims of Having 120,000 Attached to Private Individuals
- Safiu Kehinde
The Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, has announced the withdrawal of 11,566 policemen from VIP Security Duties.
This is coming under the heels of President Bola Tinubu’s order for the withdrawal of the personnel as well as his declaration of nationwide security emergency over the rise in insecurity across the country.
NPO Reported that Tinubu had on Sunday ordered the withdrawal of police officers from VIPs Security Duties.
The President at a security meeting with Service Chiefs declared that the police authorities will henceforth deploy their personnel to concentrate on their core police duties rather than guarding VIPs.
In their stead, Tinubu said VIPs who want police protection will now request well-armed personnel from the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).
This would be followed by the President’s declaration of national security emergency on Wednesday.
He ordered mass recruitment of personnel into the security forces as part of the measure to tackle the spate of insecurity across the country.
The President would thereafter authorise the Police to recruit 20,000 more personnel to its with various camps of the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC) to be utilised as training camps for the new recruits.
In the wake of the development, IGP Egbetokun, in a Press briefing on Thursday, announced the withdrawal of the policemen on VIP Security Duties.
As against claims circulating on social media that 120,000 policemen are attached to private individuals, Egbetokun held that only 11,566 personnel were under such duty and they have all been withdrawn.
“We have already withdrawn 11,566 personnel. We have given directives for that. I have heard; I have seen some things posted on the social media.
“People are quoting figures. I don’t know where they got their figures where they said 120,000 policemen are attached to private individuals in Nigeria.
“These are lies. I don’t know where they got their figures from and that is the figure being brandished everywhere.
“How many are we in Nigerian Police that we will attach 120,000 to private individuals? The recent Presidential directive that we should withdraw Policemen from VIP Protection make us to discover that 11,566 policemen are engaged in VIP protection as at today.” Egbetokun said.
The Police Chief noted that prior to the President’s directives, he had ordered the withdrawal of some of the personnel on the basis of the need to profile the private individuals desirous of police protection.
Egbetokun disclosed that many of the withdrawn personnel were not reassigned to the role before the Presidential order came.
“Of course, this is not the first time we are implementing this type of directive. Recently, I gave instruction that Policemen should be withdrawn from private individuals and those private individuals desirous of police protection should reapply because we saw the need to profile these individuals that are applying for police protection. And we carried out that exercise.
“During that time, a number of policemen were withdrawn. Many of them not reassigned before this Presidential order came.
“So, it is something that we have been doing. But the recent Presidential order will make the implementation more effective.” He said.
Meanwhile, Egbetokun disclosed that the President’s order will relieve him of external pressure from the private individuals as well as those close to him.
He maintained that the order would enable him to implement the directive more effectively.
“Now that it is presidential order, there won’t 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 this while.
“You can see that the implementation is going to be more effective this time around because I know that nobody is going to call IG again that please these are my people. No governor is going to call. No Minister is going to call me.
“My friends and family members will not put pressure on me because they know it is Presidential order. And I’m sure they are not going to put any pressure on any of my Commissioners of Police because they know that this is Presidential order.
“So, the implementation is going to be very effective this time around.” He said.
The IGP finally stated that the withdrawn personnel will be assigned to the rural and strategic areas where they are needed.
He assured the personnel of prioritisng their welfare.
“We are going to deploy these men to the areas where we need them. We are returning to our frontline policing function, especially at this critical time.
“Every time we are talking of manpower need, manpower shortage. And now that we have surplus of 11,566 that are coming and are redeploying to core policing function.
“It is going to help us a lot. We will not neglect the welfare of these men.
“Mr. President who gave this instruction knows very well more than all of us that the welfare of these men is very important and anyone we are sending to this rural and remote communities, their welfare will be taken care of. That I can assure you.” He added.