President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the reorganisation of the Nigeria Police Force, IgbereTV reports.
With this reorganisation, the Force Intelligence Bureau (FIB), which was previously a section under the FCIID, is now an independent Department of the Force to be headed by a Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIG). Also, five additional Police Zonal Command Headquarters have been created, and the Force Criminal Intelligence and Investigations Department (FCIID) has been decentralized.
Consequently, the Nigeria Police Force now has eight Departments and each is headed by a DIG.
The Departments are: Department of Finance and Administration, Department of Operations, Department of Logistics and Supply, Force Criminal Investigations Department (FCID), Department of Training and Development, Department of Research and Planning, Department of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), as well as Force Intelligence Department.
The Force Public Relations Officer, DCP Frank Mba, who disclosed this in a statement on Thursday, said: “As part of efforts at addressing threats posed by the dynamics of crimes in the country, and the full implementation of the Federal Government community policing initiative, the Federal Government of Nigeria has approved the reorganisation of the Nigeria Police Force.
“The Federal Government also approved the further decentralization of the FCID with the establishment of two additional offices in Enugu and Gombe states. While the office in Enugu is expected to take care of investigations of major crimes emanating from the South-East and South-South geo-political zones, the office in Gombe will take care of the North-East geo-political zone. Each of these Annexes, in addition to the pre-existing ones in Lagos and Kaduna states, shall be headed by an Assistant Inspector-General of Police (AIG) who shall report to the DIG in-charge of the FCID, Force Headquarters, Abuja.”
Also, 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, Kaduna Commands).
Chairman of the Nigeria Police Council, IGP Adamu thanked President Buhari, who is also the Chairman of the Nigeria Police Council. IGP Adamu expressed confidence that the reorganisation will further bring policing closer to the people, improve the response time of the police to emergency situation across the country and will have an overall positive impact on the quality of service provided by the Nigeria Police.
