As part of efforts to free personnel for police stations and reduce complaints about tactical team excesses, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mr Tunji Disu, has ordered the restructuring of tactical teams at zonal, state command, area command and divisional levels.
In a statement issued on Sunday by the spokesman of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), Mr Anthony Okon Placid, a Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), the police chief said the reduction could be achieved by the merger or disbandment of tactical teams.
However, he emphasised that security outfits created by state governments like the Lagos Rapid Response Squad, Oyo’s SRS, and Bayelsa’s Operation DOO-AKPOR and other similar outfits across the country, may not be affected by this directive.
He said tactical teams at Zonal and State Command levels should be a maximum of five, and Area Command and Divisional levels must be a maximum of three.
“This can be achieved by merging or disbanding teams, at the Heads of formations’ discretion,” a part of the statement read.
It was noted that this action was taken because of the proliferation of tactical teams and the bad image this was causing the security agency due to the excesses of the poorly supervised teams.
In addition, these teams were draining police divisions and posts of required manpower.