Buhari approves reorganisation of police, grants FIB full autonomy

President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the reorganization of the Nigeria Police Force to enable the force effectively tackle the rising security challenges in the country.

The Force Spokesman, Frank Mba, who disclosed this in a statement on Thursday, said the reorganization included the full autonomy of the Force Intelligence Bureau (FBI) which was formerly under the Force Criminal Investigation Department, (FCID).

“Following the approval, the FBI will become a full-fledged department to be headed by a Deputy Inspector-General of Police and expected to fully integrate intelligence-led policing strategy to the Community Policing initiative,” Mba said.

According to the Force spokesman, the president also approved further decentralization of the FCID with the establishment of two additional offices in Enugu and Gombe states.

He said the Enugu office was expected to take care of investigations of major crimes emanating from the South-East and South-South geo-political zones, while the office in Gombe would take care of the North-East geo-political zone.

He added that each of the annexes, in addition to the pre-existing ones in Lagos and Kaduna States, would be headed by an Assistant Inspector-General of Police who would report to the DIG in-charge of the FCID, Force headquarters, Abuja.

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He added: “The reorganization also included the creation of five additional Police Zonal Command Headquarters. With this new arrangement, the Nigeria Police Force now has eight Departments and each is headed by a DIG.

“These are – the Department of Finance and Administration, Department of Operations, Department of Logistics and Supply, Force Criminal Investigations Department, Department of Training and Development, Department of Research and Planning, Department of Information and Communication Technology, ICT and Force Intelligence Department.

“ In a similar vein, five new Police Zonal Command Headquarters have been created for the Nigeria Police Force in addition to the hitherto existing 12 Zonal Command Headquarters. This makes a total of 17 Zonal Command Headquarters in the country.

“The five new Zonal Commands are Akure (Ondo/Ekiti Commands); Awka (Enugu, Anambra, Ebonyi), Yenagoa (Bayelsa, Rivers Commands), Maiduguri (Yobe, Borno Commands) and Katsina ( Katsina and Kaduna commands).

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