The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has warned that any police officer found providing escort or protection for Very Important Persons (VIPs) will be arrested, describing such assignments as “illegal duty” under the current directive of the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun.
Force Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, issued the warning on Tuesday while speaking as a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme.
Hundeyin stressed that the enforcement operation is fully underway, emphasising that all officers attached to VIP protection duties have been withdrawn.
“The enforcement is on. The IGP gave the directive that any police officer found escorting VIPs be arrested because, definitely, he is on illegal duty. Every one of them has been recalled,” the Force spokesman said on the current affairs show.
The police PRO stated that the IGP had issued strict orders to senior police commanders to withdraw all officers previously assigned to VIPs.
Quoting the IGP’s instruction, Hundeyin said, “The IGP ordered the AIG SPU [Assistant Inspector-General of Police in charge of the Special Protection Unit] to go to the Abuja airport and station his men there and arrest any police officer found escorting VIPs.”
“He gave the same order to the Commissioner of Police in Lagos State to go to the Lagos airport and arrest any police officer escorting VIPs. That’s how seriously we take this,” he added.
The police PRO also said President Bola Tinubu’s order is absolute and not based on “the highest bidder.”
Tinubu’s order to withdraw police escorts from VIPs is to redeploy personnel to core policing duties amid rising insecurity nationwide.
