IG backs mobile police to tackle banditry, insurgency

Inspector General of Police, Olatunji Disu. Photo: NPF

The Inspector-General of Police, Olatunji Disu, has expressed confidence in the ability of the Mobile Police Force to tackle insurgency and banditry across the country.

He noted that the success of the Federal Government’s drive to quell insurgency and banditry would depend largely on the operational readiness of the Police Mobile Force.

The IG stated this on Saturday while declaring open a training course for trainers and instructors of the Mobile Police Force at the Police Mobile Force Training College, Ende Hills, in Nasarawa State.

He stressed that Mobile Police officers possessed the specialised training and tactical ability required to combat insurgency.

Speaking on the presidential directive to security chiefs, the IG said President Bola Tinubu had given clear marching orders to all service commanders to restore peace in the country.

“The President said, ‘Call all the service commanders,’ and give marching orders: bring back peace to the country, quell insurgency, quell banditry. And everybody is going out to do that.

“But I know the biggest success for this can only come from us — from us! Because you, Mobile Police officers, you are trained on how to combat insurgency. You have that ability; you have that training,” he told the participants.

He added that until the Mobile Police Force was fully ready, it would be difficult to reduce insurgency, noting that the entire nation was depending on the Force to deliver.

“And I know that until the Mobile Police is ready, insurgency will be difficult to reduce. So I want us to bring back that training. I want us to bring back that ability, because the whole nation, all Nigerians, are depending on you and me,” he said.

The IGP explained that the expansion of the PMF to 84 squadrons nationwide was part of efforts to reposition the Force to meet Nigeria’s complex security challenges, which include terrorism, banditry, armed criminality, communal violence and attacks on critical infrastructure.

He said the current security environment, which he described as fluid, sophisticated and unpredictable, demanded a Mobile Force that was not just strong but smart — combining physical courage with tactical intelligence, speed with precision, and firepower with discipline and respect for human rights.

According to him, the ongoing trainers’ course was a strategic intervention to ensure that every squadron was properly trained, properly led, properly equipped and operationally ready.

He charged the trainers to return to their various states with a single objective — to produce better officers than the ones they met on the ground — adding that the quality of training would determine the quality of personnel and, ultimately, the success of the fight against insurgency.

He assured that the Force leadership would continue to prioritise training, modernisation and welfare, but expected commitment, discipline and results from the Mobile Police.

In his address, the AIG in charge of the Police Mobile Force, Francis Idu, said the PMF had returned to base for retraining after months of sustained clearance operations across designated red spots in the country.

Idu noted that operatives deployed since March for stability patrols were recalled to rejig the training system and refocus on the basics of counter-insurgency, fighting patrols and after-action reviews from field encounters.

He further thanked the IGP for mobilising resources for the exercise, describing it as critical to reactivating the fighting unit of the Nigeria Police Force.

On operational gains, he said clearance operations had restored sanity from Lagos to Edo, and that in the South-East, apart from the Orlu-Oko-Ihiala-Ihizougu axis, other areas were now clear.

He assured that the operations would continue and that the momentum from the retraining would accelerate field performance to subdue the remaining flashpoints.

Earlier in his remarks, the Commandant of the Police Mobile Force Training College, Ende Hills, Sunday Peter, said that out of 750 instructors identified, 450 were in the first phase.

He further noted that the remaining officers would be deployed in the second phase of the training exercise.