Police boss dissolves all Intelligence Response Teams and Special Tactical Squads in response to drugs scandal

NIGERIA'S inspector-general of police Usman Baba has ordered the closure of all satellite units of the Intelligence Response Team (IRT) and Special Tactical Squad (STC) in response to the recent narcotics scandal.

Yesterday, to Assistant Police Commissioner Abba Kyari, who headed the IRT was arrested after the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) declared him a wanted man over his alleged links with an international drug cartel. NDLEA spokesman Femi Babafemi, said Mr Kyari is a member of a drug cartel that operates the Brazil-Ethiopia-Nigeria illicit drug pipeline, so he needs to answer questions that cropped up in an ongoing drug case in which he is the principal actor.

In what looks like a major corruption scandal, several other policemen have been arrested in connection with the case, amid allegations that they collude with drug smugglers to allow them operate. It has also been alleged that the NDLEA too is immersed in the scandal as its officials regularly allow drug cartels to smuggle narcotics into the country.

Seeking to curtail the spread of the malaise, Mr Baba directed that all serving officers in the satellite units report to the Nigeria Police Force headquarters in Abuja for debriefing. Police source disclosed that officers in these units will be demobilized and posted to commands across the country.