Security experts, senior lawyer and some police officers have kicked against the disbanding of all satellite offices and bases of the Intelligence Response Squad (IRT) and Special Tactical Squad (STS).
The IGP, Mohammed Adamu, had directed that disbanding the formations followed moves by the Force Headquarters to reposition the police and ensure accountability and due process.
According to Adamu, the integration of the IRT and STS into the Force Intelligence Bureau (FIB) headed by Ibrahim Lamorde was in order to improve efficiency.
According to a signal sighted by newsmen, the Deputy Commissioners of Police (DCPs) in charge of IRT (Abba Kyari) and Yusuf Kolo (STS) are to ensure that all bases and offices outside Abuja were shut down with immediate effect.
Operatives in the units have also been ordered to report to Abuja amidst the Covid-19 pandemic.
Reacting, a security expert, Dr. Onah Ekohomu said it would be an unpardonable error for the IGP to scrap IRT offices or put IRT under FCIID.
Ekohomu noted, “The IRT should be left alone as it is a specialised formation that has proven that it is capable. If the police are winding down the offices of IRT nationwide, they are telling kidnappers to have a field day.”
“I mean it will be an unpardonable error to do so. That the police are trying and being cheered up is because of the achievements of IRT. The Squad is doing well in intelligence and it uses highly technical and sophisticated equipment to track hoodlums.
“It will be a fatal mistake to wind IRT down, but for STS. I think they have a reason to make the Squad work with the Federal SARS, because they are doing the same work with States SARS, fighting armed robberies and violent crimes in the state, but for IRT, it should be left on its own”.