The Nigerian Police Force (NPF) has announced a major reorganization of its structure and operations, affecting the security details of some prominent individuals and the decentralization of its intelligence and investigation units.
According to a statement by the Force Public Relations Officer, DCP Frank Mba, the NPF has withdrawn the Police Mobile Force (PMF) personnel previously attached to Mrs Aisha Buhari, wife of former President Muhammadu Buhari, Mallam Mamman Daura, his brother, Boss Mustapha, a former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, and Iyorchia Ayu, a former Senate President.
The statement explained that the withdrawal was part of the NPF’s ongoing reassessment and reorganization of security details, which aims to optimize the deployment of police personnel and ensure the effective use of resources in line with prevailing security challenges in the country.
The statement added that the withdrawal of personnel from the named high-profile individuals does not portray any specific threat or security breach.
The reorganization also included the full autonomy of the Force Intelligence Bureau (FIB), which was previously a section under the Force Criminal Intelligence and Investigations Department (FCIID).
The FIB is now a full-fledged department of the NPF, headed by a Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIG). The FIB is expected to fully integrate intelligence-led policing strategy to the Community Policing initiative4.
Furthermore, the reorganization involved the further decentralization of the FCIID with the establishment of two additional offices in Enugu and Gombe States.
The offices will handle investigations of major crimes emanating from the South-East, South-South and North-East geo-political zones respectively. Each office will be headed by an Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG) who will report to the DIG in charge of the FCIID at the Force Headquarters in Abuja.
The NPF also created five additional Police Zonal Command Headquarters, bringing the total number of zonal commands to 17.
The new zonal commands are Akure (Ondo/Ekiti Commands), Awka (Enugu, Anambra, Ebonyi), Yenagoa (Bayelsa, Rivers Commands), Maiduguri (Yobe, Borno Commands) and Katsina (Katsina and Kaduna commands).
President Bola Tinubu, who approved the reorganization as the Chairman of the Nigeria Police Council, expressed confidence that the reorganization will bring policing closer to the people, improve the response time of the police to incidents across the country, and generally promote efficiency in service delivery.
