24th November, 2025
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has issued a directive for the immediate withdrawal of approximately 100,000 police officers currently assigned to protect Very Important Persons across Nigeria, redeploying them to tackle the nation’s escalating security crisis.
The presidential order was announced following a high-level security meeting held on Sunday at the State House in Abuja, attended by top military and security chiefs including Lieutenant General Waidi Shaibu (Chief of Army Staff), Air Marshal Sunday Kelvin Aneke (Chief of Air Staff), Inspector General of Police Kayode Egbetokun, and Director General of the Department of State Services, Tosin Adeola Ajayi.
Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, confirmed the policy shift in an official statement, explaining that the redeployed officers will concentrate on core law enforcement responsibilities including counter-insurgency operations and community policing.
Under the new arrangement, politicians and VIPs seeking personal security protection will now rely on armed personnel from the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps rather than the police force.
The decision comes amid widespread criticism over the diversion of scarce police resources to VIP protection while communities across the country, particularly in remote areas, remain vulnerable to bandit attacks, kidnappings and terrorist activities. A November 2025 report by the European Union Agency for Asylum revealed that Nigeria’s police force has only 371,800 officers serving over 236 million citizens, with a significant portion assigned to VIP duties.
To strengthen national security capacity, President Tinubu has approved the recruitment of 30,000 additional police officers. The federal government is also collaborating with state authorities to upgrade police training facilities nationwide.
The presidential directive follows recent mass abductions that have shocked the nation, including Friday’s attack on St. Mary Private Primary and Secondary Schools in Papiri, Agwara Local Government Area of Niger State, where over 300 students and teachers were kidnapped. Questions have been raised about the withdrawal of troops guarding the school shortly before the attack, prompting the Defence Headquarters to announce a review of troop deployment strategies.
The new policy marks a significant departure from decades of practice where police personnel were routinely assigned as orderlies and security details for politicians and wealthy individuals, despite repeated promises by successive Inspectors General to end the practice.