ABUJA, Nigeria — The Nigeria Police Force has been dragged into a fresh storm of embarrassment after an internal signal seen by SaharaReporters said three Mobile Police, or MOPOL, officers were arrested over an alleged illegal escort operation in Ondo State, following an initial arrest in Ore and a scuffle that allowed two others to escape before they were later picked up.
The memo said the matter was escalated to the Ondo State Commissioner of Police after an alert at about 6:30 p.m., and that disciplinary action was being contemplated against Ore divisional authorities over what it described as “bad publicity”.
At the centre of the controversy is Force Number 530219, Corporal Dambaki Abreme, said to be attached to MOPOL 20, Lagos. The signal alleged that he was moving with Corporal Abdullahi of MOPOL 44, Force Headquarters, Abuja, and Corporal Umar of MOPOL 41, Damaturu.
The communication initially suggested that Dambaki was dressed in Civil Defence attire, but later corrected itself, saying he was actually wearing a black Special Forces denim outfit bearing MOPOL insignia. “The uniform did not in any way resemble that of the Civil Defence,” the signal said.
Even with that clarification, the police communication did not try to cleanse the officers’ conduct. It still alleged that Dambaki was on an illegal duty and claimed he had been demobilised and released from MOPOL 20, Ikeja, for deployment to Zamfara State but failed to report.
According to the same signal, he remained in Lagos and allegedly assembled “a nest of impervious elements” to carry out illegal escort operations.
The two officers who initially escaped were said to have been arrested later and were being held under the Commander, MOPOL 20, Ikeja, pending evacuation to Abuja.
The signal further said the Commander, MOPOL 20, and the Commissioner of Police in Akure had been directed to produce the three officers before the Inspector-General of Police on Tuesday, 11 August 2026, at 10:30 a.m. The memo did not hide its frustration, describing the conduct as an “embarrassment to the Force”.
A separate SaharaReporters report published a day earlier said one of the officers had been identified as Dambaki Abreme, that he enlisted into the Nigeria Police Force on 10 January 2022, and that a rifle together with 30 rounds of ammunition had been taken into custody.
Considered collectively, the two reports suggest the Ore incident may have begun as a roadside interception before widening into a full internal scandal with implications far beyond one checkpoint arrest.
The deeper problem is not merely whether the uniform was Civil Defence or MOPOL denim. The more serious question is why officers reportedly deployed across different commands were allegedly operating outside authorised duty, moving in a manner that raised immediate suspicion, and then triggering a chain of denials, corrections and blame-shifting.
If the signal is accurate, it points to a familiar and corrosive pattern in Nigerian policing: officers allegedly monetising their identity, treating escorts as a side business, and undermining the chain of command while the public is left to sort through the wreckage.
For a force already sensitive to public criticism, the language of the memo is revealing. The repeated concern over “bad publicity” suggests an institution still obsessed with image management, even when the underlying issue is discipline, legality and public trust.
In practical terms, this case will now be judged not by the anger of the memo, but by what follows: whether the officers are truly investigated, whether the alleged escort network is dismantled, and whether the public is given a clear explanation that goes beyond internal memo language and command anger.
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