Tinubu restates police withdrawal from VIPs, directs Shettima to lead ranch initiative

President Bola Tinubu. Photo: State House

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President Bola Tinubu on Wednesday reaffirmed his order to pull police officers off VIPs and return them to core policing.

He stated this minutes before presiding over the Federal Executive Council at the State House, Abuja.

“I honestly believe in what I said…It should be effected. If you have any problem because of the nature of your assignment, contact the IGP and get my clearance,” Tinubu said, sounding fed up with the slow pace of compliance.

He directed the Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, to liaise with the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, and the National Security and Civil Defence Corps to immediately replace withdrawn escorts so “you don’t leave people exposed.”

“The minister of interior should liaise IG and the Civil Defence structure to replace those police officers who are on special security duties.

“So that you don’t leave people exposed,” he insisted.

He asked the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, and the Department of State Services to issue further guidance and ensure the directive is effected.

Tinubu said, “NSA and DSS will provide further information and form themselves the committee and review the structure.”

Framing the move as a response to a spike in abductions, the President said, “We are facing challenges of kidnapping. We need all the forces we have on the ground, fully utilised.”

He added that while some officials remain vulnerable, civil defence personnel should step in for VIP protection where necessary.

“I know some of our people are exposed and I understand that we have to make exceptional provision for them and civil defence is equally armed and I want to know that from NSA to arm our forest guards too, take it very seriously.

Tinubu also disclosed that forest guards will be armed, saying, “I have directed the NSA to arm our forest guards, too. Take it seriously,” the President stated.

The President also tasked Vice-President Kashim Shettima to use the National Economic Council to identify and rehabilitate grazing reserves into ranches, aiming to defuse farmer-herder flashpoints and formalise the livestock economy.

He directed, “Again, especially livestock reform, I think the Vice President should get the NEC first of all to see which villages or grazing reserves can be salvaged or rehabilitated into Ranches, Livestock settlements.

“We must eliminate the possibility of conflicts and turn the Livestock reform into economically viable development. The opportunity is there. Let’s utilise it.

“And it is in NEC, if we exercise the constitutional requirement which states that the land belongs to the states, whichever one they can salvage convert to a Livestock village, let us stop this conflict area and turn it into economic opportunities and prosperity.”

Wednesday’s charge came nearly three weeks after an earlier presidential directive to withdraw police details from VIPs and redeploy them to communities and highways, freeing manpower for investigations, patrols and school protection.

The November 23 directive was issued after a security meeting at the State House, Abuja. It followed a series of attacks that saw the kidnapping of at least 300 people, mostly schoolchildren, across Kebbi, Kwara and Niger States.

“Henceforth, police authorities will deploy them to concentrate on their core police duties,” read a statement signed by the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga.

According to Onanuga, Tinubu instructed that “VIPs who want police protection will now request well-armed personnel from the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps.”

Hours earlier, Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, described seeing “an excessively large security battalion assigned to a young individual close to the Presidency,” an entourage he said was “sufficient to take over a small country.”

He revealed that the young man turned out to be Seyi Tinubu, the President’s son.

He spoke at the 20th Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism Awards in Lagos on Tuesday.

In a now viral four-minute, 25-second video shared on Tuesday night by #Nigeriastories on X, Soyinka said, “I was so astonished that I started looking for the national security adviser.

“I said track him down for me. I think they got him somewhere in Paris.

“But he was with the president; he was in a meeting.”

He continued, “Then, I said I’ve just seen something I can’t believe I don’t understand and I described the scene to him. I said do you mean that a child of the head of state goes around with an army for his protection or whatever.

“I couldn’t believe it. Later on, I did some investigative journalism, and I found that apparently this is how this young man goes around with his battalion, his heavily armed soldiers.”

With three years of experience, Stephen, The PUNCH correspondent, has been covering Nigeria’s presidency, politics, security, immigration and trafficking in persons

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