Nigeria's President Bola Tinubu has ordered that 100,000 police officers attached to VIPs, including politicians, be deployed to tackle rising insecurity, especially the recent spate of abductions.

Data shows that Nigeria, which has more than 230 million people, has nearly 400,000 police officers, with a quarter of them assigned to VIPs.

It is this glaring disparity, compounded by recent cases of widespread insecurity, that prompted President Tinubu to make the decisive intervention.

The head of state chaired a crucial security meeting in the country's capital Abuja on Sunday, November 23.

Nearly 380 people abducted in one week

This comes after nearly 380 people, including schoolchildren and worshippers, were abducted in four different states in the last one week alone.

The Abuja meeting was attended by senior security officials, including the director-general of Nigeria's Department of State Services (DSS), which is tasked with internal security functions.

Others included the country's army chief and also the inspector-general of police.

According to a statement by President Tinubu's Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, VIPs in need of dedicated protection will be assigned armed officers from the paramilitary Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).

'Few policemen'

Normally, NSCDC protects Nigeria's critical infrastructure such as oil pipelines and power installations, and also responds to emergencies.

The paramilitary unit also oversees the registration and supervision of private guard companies operating in Nigeria.

Explaining why President Tinubu took the drastic decision on VIP guards, Onanuga said that "remote areas of Nigeria have few policemen, therefore making the task of protecting and defending the people difficult."

President Tinubu has also ordered the hiring of at least 30,000 police officers to help combat rising insecurity.

Recent abduction incidents

Over the last week, approximately 379 people have been abducted in the states of Kebbi, Kwara, Niger, and Borno.

On November 17, gunmen stormed a government girls' boarding school in Kebbi, fatally attacked the school's deputy principal, and abducted 25 students. Twenty-four of the students remain missing, while one escaped and returned safely.

One day later, gunmen raided a church in Kwara state and abducted 38 worshippers. On Sunday, President Tinubu announced that all the church-raid victims had been freed. Details about their abductors were not immediately released.

In yet another case of mass abduction, more than 300 schoolchildren and staff were kidnapped at a Catholic school in Niger state.

Trump's threat and Nigeria's reaction

On Sunday, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) said 50 of the learners escaped from their abductors' grip and returned to their families.

The latest abduction incident occurred on Sunday, November 23, when 13 children were kidnapped while working on a farm in Borno state. One victim managed to escape from their captors and safely returned home, according to authorities.

These incidents come on the back of President Donald Trump's threat that the US would deploy its soldiers to secure Nigeria from violent acts, an intervention that Abuja rejected.