Editorial Suite
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OVER the years, the Nigeria Police Force, NPF, has sustained a public enlightenment campaign designed to assure Nigerians that the policeman or policewoman is his or her friend. But in reality is he or she a friend? Many Nigerians who have had one thing or the other to do with the police will readily tell you that a policeman or a policewoman is not only a fiend but also patently devilish and incorrigibly corrupt. Some Nigerians even liken the police system in Nigeria to a pig which is always at home with dirt no matter what is done to keep it clean. That, probably, explains the origin of the adage that no matter how you wash and comb a pig, it will still return to operate in a dirty environment. So is the police system and corruption in Nigeria.
Despite the series of efforts in the past to eradicate or minimise corruption in the NPF over the years, some corrupt elements in the system still invent disingenuous ways to sustain it. Take for instance, when Mohammed Dikko Abubakar became the inspector general of police, IGP, in 2011, he ordered that all police checkpoints across the country be dismantled forthwith. Before his appointment, police road blocks had been turned into illegal revenue centers of extortion. Some motorists, who resisted the extortion, are not alive today to tell their stories while those who survived police brutality for their refusal to accede to the extortion have ugly experiences to narrate. This explains why there was renewed public outcry in 2011 for the dismantling of road blocks which Abubakar promptly did. Even now with the ban, some corrupt elements in the police have found a way around it in the guise of stop and search operation.
A friend who had been a victim of the stop and search operation of the police in March this year in Lagos Island narrated to me a rib-breaking experience of his encounter with the police who stopped his car and demanded to see his vehicle particulars and the receipts covering all the items they found in the boot of his car. After he presented all they had demanded, they were still looking for something they could use to extort money from him. At a stage, one of the policemen wanted him to produce the receipt that covered all the receipts he had on him. At first, he thought it was a joke and tried to wave it aside. But when he saw the seriousness in their eyes, he knew he was in for trouble and had to part with a negotiated sum before they could allow him to go. That is the police for you. Some Nigerians tend to believe that corruption and the Nigeria police are like Siamese twins and cannot be easily separated.
Early in March this year, Realnews did a cover story titled: “Turning Police Recruitment into Big Business.” It was a chilling revelation of the rot in the police system where some police officers extort money from those seeking admission into police colleges in the country. We are again revisiting corruption in the police by exposing another dimension of the malaise in our cover story this week. It is titled: “Vehicle Engine Registration Scam- How Police Defraud Motorists.” It was ably crafted by Olu Ojewale, our general editor. It is part of Realnews’ social responsibility to expose corruption wherever it is found in the public or private sector in Nigeria. We strongly believe that the war against corruption must be won for democracy to survive. Happy reading.
Mike Akpan
Editor-in-Chief
— May 13, 2013 @ 01:00 GMT
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My personal experience confirmed the evidence. I scheduled my wife to travel with me for the ongoing FIG week in Abuja. Somebody chose to embarrass my family and with the help of the police, my plans were turn into shreds. My wife could not travel even when alterations had been allowed by the travel agencies. The police is winning the war against righteous living. Is the police an agent of the devil in Nigeria? Bad laws are effectively implemented but good enactments never see the light of day. We have more to say but are there listening ears? Can anybody call the police to order? Eyefia