Police & Department of State Services (DSS) Officers Still Doing VIP Errands — Despite Bola Ahmed Tinubu Directive

Police & Department of State Services (DSS) Officers Still Doing VIP Errands, Despite Bola Ahmed Tinubu Directive

Fresh on-the-ground checks reveal that many police and DSS officers continue to perform private errands, such as chauffeuring children to and from school and running personal tasks for influential individuals, despite a recent presidential order to withdraw security personnel from VIP protection.

Late last month, President Tinubu instructed that all officers assigned to Very Important Persons (VIPs) be redeployed to core policing duties nationwide.

In response, the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) said it pulled more than 11,500 officers from VIP details and warned that anyone found escorting VIPs would be arrested.

But observers in Abuja and Lagos describe a different reality. During morning and afternoon school-run hours, they report seeing uniformed police and DSS operatives accompanying children of senior officials or business figures, making personal pickups, and performing non-official errands, practices that critics say betray the stated policy.

One concerned citizen quoted in the report said:

“Walk around Abuja or Lagos at peak hours and you will see the same armed escorts, the same school-run convoys, and the same misuse of state security resources.”

Critics argue that unless withdrawal is strictly enforced and publicly verifiable, the directive risks being nothing more than symbolic. They have called on citizens to anonymously submit videos or photos of officers seen on private duties as a credible form of evidence of compliance (or non-compliance).

The controversy has revived long-standing concerns about misuse of state security resources, a challenge that the NPF leadership has acknowledged before. Even as the withdrawal directive was announced as part of broader reforms to address Nigeria’s growing security crises, enforcement appears patchy on the ground.