The Federal Government has approved the reorganization of the Nigeria Police with the creation of an additional department, five Zonal Commands and granting of full autonomy to the Force Intelligence Bureau (FIB).

The Force Public Relations Officer (FPRO), DCP Frank Mba disclosed this in a statement on Thursday in Abuja.

He said the Federal Government also approved the decentralization of the Force Criminal Intelligence and Investigations Department (FCIID).

Mba said the approvals were part of efforts to address the threats posed by the dynamics of crimes and full implementation of the Community Policing initiative in the country.

According to him, by this re-organization, the FIB, which was previously a section under the FCIID, is now a full-fledged department of the Force to be headed by a Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG).

He said with the new arrangement, the force now had eight departments and each headed by a DIG.

Mba said the departments are: Finance and Administration, Operations, Logistics and Supply, Force Criminal Investigations Department (FCID), Training and Development, Research and Planning, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Force Intelligence Department.

He said with approval for the decentralization of the FCID, two additional offices would be established in Enugu and Gombe States.

The FPRO said the Enugu office would take care of investigations of major crimes emanating from the South-East and South-South geo-political zones while the office in Gombe would take care of the North-East geo-political zone.

He said each of the annexes, in addition to the existing ones in Lagos and Kaduna states, would be headed by an AIG who would report to the DIG in charge of the FCID in the Headquarters.

Mba said the creation of five new Zonal Command Headquarters in addition to the existing 12 brought the Zonal Command Headquarters to a total of 17 in the country.

“The five new Zonal Commands are: Akure, for Ondo/Ekiti; Awka for Enugu/Anambra/Ebonyi; Yenagoa for Bayelsa/Rivers; Maiduguri for Yobe/Borno and Katsina for Katsina/Kaduna.

He said the Inspector General of Police (I-G) Mr Mohammed Adamu, commended President Muhammadu Buhari, who is also the Chairman of the Nigeria Police Council for the approval.

The I-G said the reorganization would further bring policing closer to the people, improve response time to incidents across the country and promote efficiency in service delivery.