The Acting Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun rescind his earlier directive withdrawing mobile policemen from VIPs following protests by those the order would affect.
Less than a week into his appointment, Kayode had stirred reactions from Nigerians when he announced the withdrawal of personnel, specifically the Police Mobile Force (PMFs) from VIPs.
The operatives were expected to form a 40,000-specialized Quick Intervention Squad, an initiative aimed at tackling the menace of banditry and other crimes in the country.
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A total of 1000 officers would be sent to each state as a standby force while 4000 would be deployed to volatile areas of the country.
The PMF also known as MOPOL, is a strike unit of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) under the Department of Operations.
The paramilitary arm of the police is trained to conduct nationwide anti-crime patrols to combat organised crime and maintain law and order in volatile states.
Egbetokun had hoped that by withdrawing MOPOL as escorts to VIPs, the unit was underway to regain its glory while executing the tasks it has been trained to do.
But the Police boss may not have expected that the move would be met by strong opposition from the VIPs, many of who had reportedly contacted the IGP to drop the idea.
Difficult Pathway
Nearly a month after the acting IGP proposed setting up a new squad, THE WHISTLER gathered that the move may have stalled. This newspaper gathered that a signal to MOPOL barracks withdrawing officers from VIPS was complied with but not effected.
At the Dei-Dei MOPOL barrack, officers told THE WHISTLER that the PMF were on standby following a signal that they had been withdrawn from their VIPs by MOPOL 45 FHQ, only for the Police to deny the signal.
This was interpreted by many officers as a walk back on the IGP promise to withdraw officers from VIPs.
Top police officers believe that the withdrawal of PMFs, although a good and timely initiative to combat insecurity in the country, requires adequate funding and the political will of the federal government.
“You can’t keep people in a place to intervene and you don’t take care of them. I don’t think the police have such funds at the moment,” a top police officer disclosed on condition of anonymity.
“Another thing is the political will. If the president supports him, he can achieve it.
“But it will be very difficult to withdraw personnel from VIPs, but another way would be to stop MOPOLs from escorting VIPs as proposed by the IG and replacing them with the SPU in a blue beret,” he stated.
The Special Protection Unit (SPU) is a department of trained personnel set up to protect the nation’s important personalities including the legislatures, executives, judiciaries, influential business moguls, technocrats, and diplomats among others.
“Unfortunately, most VIPs prefer the MOPOLs because they are the police strike force just like SARs. They have become protective instead of operational.
“What the IG is doing is the best, that is, to let the PMF become operational for everybody rather than deploying them for monetary gain,” the officer said.
MOPOL Reluctant To Withdraw
While the police authorities may be taking necessary steps to ensure the intervention squad kicks off immediately, not many PMFs consider the idea desirable.
Officers who spoke to THE WHISTLER in separate conversations revealed that many operatives of the PMFs will rather apply to be moved to the SPU to continue their escort duties with VIPs than be withdrawn for operational duties.
“Most of these officers will not want to be withdrawn because the VIPs give them money and other benefits they enjoy. Some of them even lobby to be posted to VIPs.
“The politicians too are the ones that decide how the security situation will be and constitutionally they have the right to be protected.
“So, the issue with the police is that if you eventually withdraw mobile officers, tomorrow you will see that some of them will change to SPU,” an officer said.
Further inquiry into the feasibility of inter-unit deployment showed that officers can apply to be moved to another unit of the police if they meet the requirements.
“An officer can express interest. Then the success, or not is dependent on whether he meets the requirement or not,” an official clarified.
Security Expert Reacts
Kabir Adamu, a security expert described the situation as “extremely complex and tricky” due to the consequences of driving the initiative.
According to him, it will require the political will of the IGP to absorb such consequences to help improve the policing system of the country.
Adamu noted that since the beneficiaries run across the three tiers of government, politicians would not see the larger picture because they are selfish.
“They will rather have the deployment to themselves as against having the deployments to the community which they are a part of and because of these personal considerations, it will be very difficult for the implementation of that policy”.
The security expert averred that such demands make the position of the IGP extremely strenuous but noted, “If he (IGP) has the backing of the presidency and believes he will be protected irrespective of the consequences, and frankly I don’t see that happening, then he can successfully withdraw the officers”.
Adamu recommended that the country’s very important personalities should contact their state’s police commissioners to improve the policing mechanism in their community rather than demand self-protection.
“If I were in the politicians’ shoes, what I will do is improve on policing mechanisms. In my understanding of security, deployment should be done in concentric circles of all security assets.
“Instead of sending police officers to guard his house alone I will speak to the commissioner of police, if I am in the position of authority, and ask him what concentric circle of deployment can he do to that particular area so that even if there is a breach of security, that concentric circle (which is at least three) will be able to handle such threat,” he explained.
A concentric circle of protection involves the use of multiple layers or rings of security to establish a deep security barrier. Each level of the circle deepens with the outermost being the easiest to penetrate.
According to Adamu, such an approach will not only help protect the VIPs, but the community at large as the layers are meant to deter threats at an ever-increasing level.
Thus, based on the need to protect and combat security threats, Adamu believes politicians will often demand PMFs than the SPU cadre because the latter is not adequately trained and equipped to counter the threat elements Nigeria currently has.
On the feasibility of the squad, the expert said Nigeria is currently in a shortage of police personnel but there is a silver lining given the mutual relationship between the police and the police service commission.