Eld-El-Kabir: Police React To Viral Video Of Officers Escorting Civilian To Slaughter Cow

The Nigeria Police Force has vowed to identify and punish gun-wielding officers of the Police Mobile Force (PMF) unit captured in a video escorting a supposedly influential civilian to slaughter a cow at a yet-to-be-identified location.

The 1:13 minute video was shared by a Twitter user, Oluyemi Fasipe, on Wednesday, calling the attention of the spokesperson of the police, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, to the footage.

At least six police officers were seen following the civilian who held a knife behind a cow that was being led to the slaughter.

Fasipe, in his tweet, demanded an explanation as to why six officers were attached to an individual.

The police spokesperson while responding to Fasipe on Thursday, condemned, and described the act as “disgusting”. He assured Nigerians that the authorities “will fish out these men”.

Adejobi said the police authorities had also set up a committee to look into the process of withdrawing PMF/tactical men from escort services.

He noted that the withdrawn officers are expected to join the 40,000 specialised quick intervention squad newly set up by the acting Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun, to curb the growing insecurity across the federation.

“When the committee submits its report, the Ag. IGP will act as fast as possible to implement the policy. We need more men to police than guard individual Nigerians.

“We can assure Nigerians of a better policing system in no distant time,” his tweets read.

IGP Egbetokun upon his appointment by President Bola Tinubu, had announced plans to revive the glory of the PMF by withdrawing many of its officers attached to VIPs.

The IGP believes the unit was underperforming and drafting them into the quick intervention squad alongside operatives of other tactical units will help in the fight against crime and criminality across the country.

To that effect, the acting IGP had set up a special committee headed by the Deputy IG (Operations) to assess and advise on how the withdrawal process can be implemented seamlessly.

The committee is expected to submit its report in two weeks (from June 26), after which further details will be made available.

The acting IGP during a meeting with the strategic commanders and top police officials, on June 23, said his administration is prepared to “stamp out violent crimes” and “tackle the menace of crimes and criminality head-on with the Intervention Squad.

The acting IGP said 1000 personnel of the squad would be deployed to each state as a standby force while 4,000 would be deployed to volatile areas in the country.