‘We Are Advancing Into The Fight’: IGP Egbetokun Unveils Tough New Security Strategy As Nigeria Confronts Rising Attacks
Nigeria stands at a tipping point, a moment when a single breach in a remote community can ripple across the entire country.
That was the warning from Inspector-General of Police, IGP Kayode Egbetokun, as he addressed senior officers at the Strategic Police Conference in Abuja on Thursday.
Beneath this concern, he offered a promise: the Police are not stepping back, they are stepping forward.
The IGP’s message was framed around one story that has unsettled the nation: the back-to-back abductions in Kwara, Kebbi and Niger States.
The image he invoked was vivid, frightened children taken in the early hours, communities jolted awake, and a country momentarily gripped by doubt.
The tension was clear: if criminals can strike anywhere, how safe is everywhere?
But Egbetokun vehemently disagreed with the perception that the Police were failing. Yes, he admitted, “we might not have been doing enough,” but the Force had not been idle.
He reminded the room that all abducted victims in Kwara and Kebbi were rescued unharmed through rapid joint operations, a glimpse into what he described as the power of coordinated security response and urged the commanders to always work as a team.
Still, the emotional centre of his speech was a confession wrapped in resolve: “We have no excuses… Peace maintained in one location but violated in another is not peace.”
He then brought in numbers that prove that community can yield the desired result.
– 8,202 suspects arrested,
– 232 kidnap victims rescued,
– 249 firearms recovered,
– 238 stolen vehicles retrieved.
But the ticking clock is the looming festive season — Nigeria’s busiest travel period, when criminals often attempt to exploit movement and distraction.
For that reason, the IGP ordered an aggressive visibility policing surge: more highway patrols, more night operations, more drones, more real-time intelligence, and more boots on the ground.
There was also a major shift: the withdrawal of Police personnel from VIP protection.
To many, it’s a policy that will raise questions; to Egbetokun, it is a strategic rebalancing, “a reclamation” of policing priorities, redirecting officers from private security posts back into communities that actually need protection.
His warning to officers was sharp: disinformation may swirl, opportunists may try to twist the directive, and criminals may seek to exploit loopholes. But implementation will be phased, controlled, and guided.
And in a moment that echoed the urgency with which he began, the IGP closed by sending his commanders back into the field with a charge: Nigeria cannot afford policing pauses, not now, not ever.
As the nation braces for its busiest travel weeks, the question he posed at the start returns: if one breach anywhere threatens peace everywhere, can this new policing blueprint keep the country ahead of the next threat? Only the days ahead, and the Force’s actions, will tell.
Follow the Savinews Africa channel on WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VawgaEL5vKA9Y5XTFg0n
