The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has withdrawn 11,566 officers assigned as personal escorts to Very Important Persons (VIPs) across the country, a move ordered by Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR. The withdrawal was confirmed Thursday November 27th by the Kayode Egbetokun, the Inspector-General of Police (IGP).
IGP Egbetokun said the officers are being redeployed immediately to bolster policing capacity across states that are challenged by rising insecurity. He clarified that the move is not political but a deliberate reallocation of manpower back to core law-enforcement duties in line with the president’s broader security agenda.
The presidential directive issued during a security meeting involving the Heads of the Armed Forces, Police, Air Force and the Department of State Services (DSS) mandates that VIPs requiring security must now seek protection from the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), rather than the police.
This policy reversal aims to address a long-standing criticism: that large numbers of police personnel serving as VIP escorts weakened regular patrols and reduced security presence in vulnerable, high-risk communities. Police sources had previously acknowledged that many rural or urban communities lacked adequate policing because officers were tied up in convoy duty for a few influential individuals. Some human-rights groups and security analysts have welcomed the move as a potentially transformative shift, arguing that it could help restore police presence in underserved areas, improve response times, and reinforce trust between law-enforcement and ordinary citizens. That said, others caution that true success depends not only on redeployment numbers but on effective training, supervision, resources, and long-term structural reforms to ensure police regain capacity and public confidence.
