The acting Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun has disclosed that a Special Intervention Squad will be established within the Nigeria Police Force that would revitalize the Police Mobile Force and other units to enhance effective policing.
Egbetokun disclosed this at a 3-day retreat organized by the Police Service Commission for the Committee of Retired Inspectors General of Police in Ibadan, Oyo State.
According to him, some officers of the PMF would be mobilised, retrained, kitted, enumerated specially to make them function like the PMF of those days and will not be deployed to guide duties or VIP escorts as it is today.
He maintained that officers of the squad would be housed and ready for deployment at short notice to any crisis zone in Nigeria.
“We intend to have this squad in every state of the federation but realised that we might not be able to do it simultaneously. So we have therefore identified some states that we are going to use as pilot states for the scheme but the whole idea is just to have the PMF that we really need”, he explained.
He also disclosed that efforts to recruit additional personnel into the Nigeria Police Force were ongoing to address the shortage of manpower within the Police Force.
In the retreat with the theme; ‘Intervention Of Ex-Inspectors General of Police For strategic contribution to effective policing In Nigeria, the IGP highlighted the various strategies implemented for the police force, saying the funding difficulties have shown notable improvement with the support of government.
He said: ”We are looking forward to a police force that will be well positioned to respond appropriately and adequately to the dynamic of crime and criminality in Nigeria.
“It is difficult to have such a police force without understanding the multifaceted nature of the challenges that we have. The challenges today are numerous and multifaceted and requested multifaceted approaches to tackle.
“We cannot be talking of just human security without considering economic and environmental security because they are all interconnected and we need to understand the interconnectedness of these challenges, as attending to human security and neglecting the others will not solve the problem.’’
