Land Recovery: IGP Egbetokun Warns Against Using Police Officers as Escorts

Kayode Egbetokun, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), has cautioned officers against becoming involved in civil cases or land disputes that don’t have obvious criminal components.
Egbetokun said in a statement on Thursday that Nigerian police officers will no longer act as enforcers for business interests.

Getting involved in such issues damages the force’s reputation and neutrality, he said.

According to him, the Nigerian Police Force is not and never will be used as an enforcer of commercial interests.

“Officers have no business escorting parties for land recovery business, interfering with civil claims without a proven criminal element, or disturbing legally permitted occupations.”

Any officer who was discovered to have gone beyond this point would be disciplined, he continued.

The newly implemented Criminal Database Systems, which Egbetokun referred to as the “nervous system of 21st century Nigerian policing,” were also the subject of a statewide training program for police officers.

Launched in Abuja, the initiative signifies a change from reactive policing to intelligence-led, proactive operations grounded in data analysis and global collaboration.

This training signifies the beginning of a new era for the NPF and goes beyond a simple exercise. There is no memory without data. There is no justice if remembrance is absent. However, criminals have nowhere to hide when there is data, Egbetokun continued.

The IGP admitted that fractured intelligence, dispersed data, and inadequate record-keeping had long been flaws in Nigerian law enforcement, frequently leading to stalled cases and eroded public confidence.

He promised that the days of “forgotten files” will be over thanks to the new technology.

“With the help of the Federal Government and our allies, we are creating a system that keeps track of every arrest, documents every case, and holds every officer accountable. No case will be lost in the misplaced files. He declared, “No conviction will vanish into silence.”

The database will improve local law enforcement and bring Nigeria into compliance with international policing norms, according to Egbetokun.