Senator representing Abia South, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, has spoken about the police withdrawal from VIPs and how it affects him. Abaribe was recently trending because of a statement he made during a Senate plenary session discussing insecurity, where he called for urgency and questioned why President Tinubu should be praised despite the insecurity crisis plaguing the country.
In an interview with Arise News about the insecurity challenges in Nigeria, he was asked for his opinion on the president’s directive to withdraw police protection from people like him. He revealed that it didn’t affect him because he didn’t use police protection even before Tinubu’s directive. Speaking on this, he said:
“I don’t use police. We were all offered; I didn’t use it.”
He further added:
“Nothing is being withdrawn from me. You have to have it first for it to be taken away from you.”
However, when asked how the withdrawal of VIP protection would make people safer—given that about 11,000 policemen previously assigned to VIPs could now be reassigned to tackle insecurity—he questioned the logic. He said:
“Maybe you can ask the policemen who withdrew them how that would make people safer.”
He further asked:
“How does that make people safer?”
He also revealed that the withdrawn VIPs would need fresh combat training, as they haven’t been in such situations for years. In conclusion, he stated:
“You have to give the person fresh training. You have to let him know how to do this. You have to reorient the person.”
