By El-ameen Ibrahim
Communities across the federation are set to feel a more visible police presence after the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun, ordered the immediate redeployment of riot policemen from the No. 24 Police Mobile Force (PMF) Presidential Escort at the State House, Abuja, back to their home state commands.
The instruction — issued in a police signal dated December 16, 2025, and transmitted by the Department of Finance and Administration (Welfare) at Force Headquarters, Abuja — was addressed to senior operational commanders and commissioners of police nationwide and made clear that the movement of affected personnel must be carried out without further delay.
The redeployment affects officers specifically assigned to close-protection duties at the Presidential Villa; those officers are to return from Abuja to state commands in a wide swathe of the country.
Some of the recipients of returning personnel include Adamawa, Kebbi, Kaduna, Anambra, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Benue, Borno, Bayelsa, Cross River, Ebonyi, Ekiti, Enugu, Gombe, Imo, Jigawa, Kogi, Kano, Katsina, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Ondo, Osun, Plateau, Sokoto, Taraba and Yobe, as well as the Federal Capital Territory. Additional redeployments are earmarked for formations in Zone 1 (Kano), Zone 3 (Yola) and Zone 7 (Abuja).
Copies of the signal were circulated to key security actors, including the Chief Personal Security Officer to the President and the Commander of No. 24 PMF, Abuja, and dispatched to other relevant police formations nationwide, ensuring the order reached units charged with implementing the transfers.
The move follows a presidential directive from November in which President Bola Tinubu ordered the withdrawal of police officers from VIP escort and guard duties. The presidential instruction framed the measure as part of a wider effort to reassign uniformed personnel to core policing functions in order to strengthen internal security and broaden police presence within communities.
Enforcement mechanisms accompanied the presidential directive. The Force has deployed special police monitoring teams to track compliance with the withdrawal, while personnel of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) have been assigned to assume some escort and guard responsibilities previously performed by the police.
The combined measures are intended both to free trained officers for neighbourhood security duties and to ensure continuity of protection for public figures.
Security analysts say the redeployments could increase routine patrols, quicken response times and provide more manpower for investigations at the state level — outcomes the Force referenced as central to the policy shift.
For communities long accustomed to scarce policing on beaten paths, the return of officers from VIPs detail may translate into a quicker, more sustained security footprint.
Operationally, commanders have been ordered to effect the movement immediately. The signal to redeploy did not specify timelines for the entire rotation beyond the injunction to act “without delay,” but its distribution to zonal and command headquarters signals that the Force intends a coordinated national operation rather than a piecemeal reassignment.
Officials from the Presidency and the Force were yet to release detailed schedules of the redeployment or spell out how the reallocation of officers will be phased in relative to ongoing security priorities in hotspots. Likewise, it remains to be seen how those states with acute security challenges will prioritise returning officers across local jurisdictions. What is clear is that the central directive changes the immediate disposition of a well-trained segment of police manpower long stationed in the capital.
The reassignment also raises questions about the logistics of reintegration: transport of personnel, accommodation at receiving commands, and rapid re-assignment into policing functions at the local level. Senior police sources say those matters are being managed through inter-command coordination and the Welfare Department that issued the signal.
For the No. 24 PMF, which has been engaged in close-protection duties at the State House, the redeployment marks an institutional pivot away from sustained VIP protection toward a renewed emphasis on conventional policing. For towns and cities named on the signal’s list, the return of these officers offers a tangible promise — more boots on the ground, more patrols on arterial roads, and a potentially faster response to crime.
The Government’s broader security rationale is straightforward: by returning police officers from static security assignments at the apex of power, the State hopes to seed those skills back into the policing architecture across the federation, thereby enhancing visibility and deterrence where everyday citizens live and work.
How quickly that promise will translate into measurable gains — reduced response times, more arrests, or a decline in crime rates — will depend on how effectively the redeployments are executed and how state commands absorb and deploy the returning personnel within existing operational plans.
In the short term, enforcement teams will monitor the withdrawal and the NSCDC will sustain some protective functions; in the medium term, the success of the exercise will be judged by whether communities notice a difference in policing and whether the redeployed officers can be rapidly reintegrated into frontline duties that keep streets and neighbourhoods safer.
