Senator Ali Ndume has criticised the continued deployment of police officers to lawmakers and other VIPs despite President Bola Tinubu’s recent order directing the withdrawal of police personnel from such duties.
Tinubu had instructed that police officers be removed from VIP protection roles and replaced with operatives of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) as part of efforts to tackle rising insecurity. But Ndume, speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today, said the directive has not been implemented.
He noted that police presence around VIPs, particularly within the National Assembly, remained unchanged.
“This is one of the commendable things Mr President did and it should be implemented effectively. We should see it on the ground,” he said. “I thought today I would not see so many police in the National Assembly, but there are still crowded police in the complex.”
Ndume argued that securing the Federal Capital Territory should eliminate the need for personalised police protection.
“If you secure Abuja, why do you need policemen to be attached to personalities?” he asked.
He also condemned what he described as excessive and misallocated deployment of officers, stating that some ministers have police escorts attached to their wives and children. According to him, one politically exposed person even has a son who moves around with a convoy.
The senator said he recently visited a colleague whose residence had ten police officers assigned, calling the arrangement both wasteful and unfair to ordinary Nigerians.
Ndume further criticised the size of the presidential convoy, saying that a safer capital would make such heavy escorts unnecessary.
“Even the President, the convoy with which he goes about is too much. Secure Abuja and the President can even drive out,” he said. “When you secure personalities, common people become vulnerable. When you secure Abuja, then you can drive at night.”
