The Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Hafiz Ringim, on Monday in London described the Police Mobile Force as the most bastardised and cannibalised outfit.



Ringim said in an interview with the Europe correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria that the unit was over-staffed. He noted that this informed the recent downsizing of the PMF.



Ringim, who was recently confirmed as the 15th indigenous IG, is in London on a three-day working visit with the Minister of Police Affairs, Alhaji Adamu Waziri.



“In recent years, it has been the most bastardised and most cannibalised outfit; every rogue, vagabond, unauthorised person wants to be seen with a lorry load of riot policemen hanging around his entourage. We cannot afford that,” he said.



Ringim said the security of the country was not for private individuals alone, adding that every Nigerian was entitled to police protection. He said the police high command embarked on the downsizing of the PMF in order to audit its strength.



He noted that the downsizing was also aimed at posting riot policemen to appropriate operational bases at the various police stations.



“We are not unmindful of the fact that we need to have a striking unit. At the end of the exercise, we shall have the original PMF as a striking unit and the VIP protection unit,” Ringim added.



According to the IG, the unit will provide security to government officials and VIPs as authorised by law.



The IG said the police would not tolerate situations where some individuals abused police protection during elections.



He condemned situations were some politicians, who enjoyed police protection, used them to perpetrate havoc during or after elections.



“If we must have free and fair elections, we must withdraw these policemen and we are doing it and we shall do it,” Ringim said.



He also denied calling for the scrapping of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps.



“Our position is that the job of the Nigeria Police Force, as contained in the 1999 Constitution, is very clearly stated that there shall be one police force for the Federal Republic of Nigeria.



“What we are now seeing with the emergence of the NSCDC is something that looks counter to what was established by the constitution,” he said.



Ringim, however, called for a revisit of the Act establishing the NSCDC, adding that when put side by side, “one is certainly trying to override the other and the constitution in this regard should be supreme.

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