A former Director of the Department of State Services, Mike Ejiofor, has raised fresh concerns over President Bola Tinubu’s directive to move VIP protection duties from the police to the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps.
Speaking in an interview on Politics Today, Ejiofor said the NSCDC does not have the manpower or the combat-level security grooming required for such a high-stakes protection mandate.
He cautioned that while the presidential directive may carry good intentions, it confronts major operational capacity limitations within the corps.
Ejiofor said, “The NSCDC does not have the capacity; they are not trained for it. They don’t have the numbers to deploy, and their statutory function is to provide security for critical infrastructure.
“That means you would also have to train them for VIP protection, so it is a very dicey situation.”
Ejiofor also responded to the Nigeria Police Force’s claim that 11,566 officers were previously assigned to VIP duties.
“I watched the Force PRO when he said that 11,000 policemen have been withdrawn. That is contrary to claims even by a former chairman of the Police Service Commission, who said over 120,000 policemen were deployed to VIPs.
“A recent EU report also shows that we have over 100,000 policemen attached to VIPs. So how did we come to 11,000?” he queried.
Naijaonpoint reports that Ejiofor queried the practicality of enforcing the Inspector-General of Police’s order to arrest officers still escorting VIPs.
“As we speak, policemen are still walking around with people who have no means of livelihood, and the IG says they should be arrested. How are you going to arrest an armed policeman?
“Are you setting up a squad to look for them, or do you raise an alarm when you see them? It’s a difficult situation, and the police will be under pressure,” he warned.
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