The Nigeria Police Force has confirmed an ongoing massive reorganisation approved by President Muhammadu Buhari.
The Force confirmed the development in a statement by its spokesman, Deputy Commissioner of Police Frank Mba, on Thursday.
The reorganisation, which was first reported by PRNigeria, sees the Departments of the Police growing from seven to eight.
The newest Department, Force Intelligence Bureau, was excised from the Force Criminal Intelligence and Investigations Department, and will, like others, be headed by a Deputy Inspector General of Police.
Mba 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 reorganization of the Nigeria Police Force. This reorganization includes full autonomy of the Force Intelligence Bureau (FIB), creation of five additional Police Zonal Command Headquarters and the decentralization of the Force Criminal Intelligence and Investigations Department (FCIID).
“By this re-organization, the FIB, which was previously a section under the FCIID, is now a full-fledged Department of the Force to be headed by a Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIG). With this new arrangement, the Nigeria Police Force now has eight (8) Departments and each is headed by a DIG.”
Mba then listed the eight Departments to exist from now as 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 and Force Intelligence Department.
He said the Federal Government also approved the further decentralisation 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 geopolitical zones, the office in Gombe will take care of the North East geopolitical zone.
Each of these Annexes, Mba said, in addition to the pre-existing ones in Lagos and Kaduna States, shall be headed by an Assistant Inspector-General of Police, who shall report to the DIG in-charge of the FCID, Force Headquarters, Abuja.
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, Kaduna Commands).
Mba added: “The Inspector-General of Police, IGP M.A Adamu, NPM, mni while thanking the President, His Excellency, Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR who is also the Chairman of the Nigeria Police Council, expresses confidence that the reorganization will further bring policing closer to the people, improve the response time of the Police to incidents across the country and generally promote efficiency in service delivery.”
