A new report from the European Union Agency for Asylum has revealed that more than 100,000 officers of the Nigeria Police Force are currently deployed to protect politicians and other Very Important Persons.
This significant diversion of personnel comes despite repeated directives from the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, to withdraw such units from VIP duties.
The report, published in November 2025, highlighted the strain this places on national security. It noted that the Nigeria Police Force has an estimated strength of 371,800 officers serving a population of about 236.7 million people.
“The resulting shortage in police personnel was compounded by the fact that more than 100,000 police officers were assigned to the protection of politicians and VIPs, rather than to tasks serving the general population,” the EU agency stated.
This practice, it concluded, worsens the country’s policing deficits. “This shortage in manpower, as well as corruption and insufficient resources, has resulted in delayed responses to crimes and numerous communities being left without protection,” the report stated.
It further detailed systemic issues within the force, noting that “with reliable accountability mechanisms lacking, there were reports of police officers engaging in misconduct, including arbitrary arrests, extortion of money and excessive use of violence.”
The findings show a clear continuation of a problem that the police leadership has publicly sought to address.
In June 2023, shortly after assuming office, IG Egbetokun ordered the withdrawal of Police Mobile Force operatives from VIP duties, stating the tactical unit would be reserved strictly for strategic national operations. He issued a similar directive again in April 2025, ordering a nationwide withdrawal of mobile police officers attached to VIPs.
The report’s assertion that over 100,000 officers are still assigned to these roles indicates the difficulty in enforcing these orders. Efforts to get an official response from the Force Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, were unsuccessful, as calls and messages sent to him were not returned.
The debate over VIP security deployments has also reached the highest levels of government. In August, President Bola Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Policy and Coordination, Hadiza Bala-Usman, publicly called for an end to the practice. “One of the most disturbing things for me is when VIPs arrive somewhere with so many policemen trailing them, while the areas that actually need security are left unattended,” she said.
She argued that elite protection should not compromise national security. “We cannot continue to deploy police trained for anti-terrorism operations just to guard individuals in Ikoyi. That is completely wrong,” Bala-Usman stated. “We must free our policemen to do national security as required. Whoever feels too important and wants machine gun-wielding personnel protecting him should go and hire a private security company with the necessary documentation, not take our mobile policemen.”
She further called for a review of the Police Act to enable private security companies to take up “some of the work we are forcing our security agencies to do.” She declared, “We must free our security agencies to do what they need to do. So that Act needs to be amended… because VIP protection, there’s a wide gamut of security deployment that really should not be done by our security personnel. We must free them for them to do national security as required.”
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