The Inspector-General of Police, Solomon Arase, has directed companies using Supernumerary Police nationwide to stop the use of police uniform for their operations on or before January 1, 2016.
This followed reports that Bassey Edet, the official driver of Governor Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom State, was wearing police uniform and posing as a police officer.
The state government had insisted that Edet was a SPY policeman, having attended Police Training School, Ikeja, Lagos State, with Force identification number, 1522.
The state Commissioner for Information and Communications, Mr. Aniekan Umanah, who displayed photocopies of Edet’s police identity card and certificates to journalists, argued that he was a duly trained personnel of the police working with the state government.
However, the IG, who gave the directive on Thursday at a meeting with security managers of firms using SPY Police for their internal security, said the measure was part of his administration’s renewed crime fighting strategy.
As stated by Arase, this was “aimed at curtailing the activities of criminally-minded persons who disguise in police uniform to perpetrate their nefarious activities.”
The IG said he had approved the use of a newly-designed grey and black trousers pair as the new uniform to be worn by SPY police officers nationwide, according to a statement by the Force Public Relations Officer, Olabisi Kolawole.