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Police Stations In Nigeria By Wale Akin
In our quest to making Nigeria great once more, we all need to address a big festering sore and this has to do with our police stations. I had wanted to write about the Nigerian Police Force but an issue or the other keeps coming up but since I have gathered the temerity, write must I now!! The NPF has suffered tremendously under various administrations in the last twenty years and I think it’s high time they enjoyed the so-called dividends of democracy. The rank and file of the NPF stinks right from the Inspector General of Police, the various Assistant Inspectors General of Police, the State Commissioners, District Police Officers, District Crime Officers, Inspectors, Sergeants, Corporals and loads of recruits. I pity an average police officer in Nigeria as they have been neglected for a very long time: let’s take a look at some of the anomalies that exists within a typical police station: A typical police station say ALAKARA POLICE STATION(That’s even a very stupid name to start with) in Mushin Local Government area of Lagos State is nothing to write home about, the rank and file are bunch of illiterates, a wanderer(This is defined by the NPF as a Nigerian arrested at 7pm, driven about town till 1am and then charged at the police station for strolling peacefully as a result of no electricity at home) is taken to the station and the next thing they ask him at the dilapidated counter is to provide money to buy a writing pen so as to be able to log his biodata in, he is then beaten mercilessly before taken into the stinking cell alongside real criminals and if per-adventure none of his relatives shows up, he becomes a forgotten entity at the already congested AREA D Office before being taken to Kirikiri.
The local NPF do not have good utility vehicles to move personnel around and also to aid policing within the local area, the vehicles are not changed at all, a typical police officer carries an AK-47 assault rifle hanging on his shoulder with a twine rope, the rifles have no functional safety catches hence the usual problems of accidental discharge, I have seen police officers on duty in bathroom slippers and leathers sandals and sometimes with local chewing sticks, I have also seen officers with no caps on while effecting arrest, I have seen officers on duty eating and lazing around with ladies of easy virtues, I have seen police officers in various types of nauseating behavioral attitudes and could not sometimes help but weep latently for Nigeria and its attendant political cum social problems. A local station should only hold a person for 24-Hour duration and charged to court, if they can’t find any reason whatsoever to charge the person involved, they should release but it’s only in Nigeria that you can be held till Armageddon. This is the usual scene at a local police station say ADENIJI ADELE POLICE STATION, a typical Idumota trader is arrested for public disturbance and brought to the local police station, while on the way to the station in the weather battered Peugeot Pick up van, he is beaten and kicked mercilessly and the officer in charge speaks in vernacular and pidgin English all through saying things like: Ah, u go die today, lets get to the station, u go die for cell, na me u dey look like that?,, u have to settle us ohh ,my oga must not see u at the station ohh, how much u get for pocket?( Now this is the issue), why give a police officer bribe to effect prompt release? Are police officers paid on time each month and how much are they paid, do they have a welfare scheme at all and if they do, are these schemes effected at all and if yes, by who? These and many more are questions we must find urgent answers to in our collective quest to making Nigeria great once again. The victim arrives at the local station already bloodied and panting for breath, he is led to the badly shaped counter with hungry sergeants at the other end asking for you to provide money to purchase a writing pen, and the victim gives money to a federal owned establishment to buy writing facilities!!! He is locked up for no just cause and trumped up charges are levied against him, utter rubbish!!
Police officers invade local markets at the slightest excuse carting away goods worth thousands of Naira all in the name of scouting for armed robbers, miscreants and street urchins, they return back to base to share the supposed loot, police offices have seized or better still commandeered commercial vehicles to help carry suspected armed robber corpses to the local morgue, do we then assert that they don’t have the use of private ambulances to use in such circumstances or better still just want to abuse the use of state power on its citizenry? We have also read and heard of police officers raping and impregnating female cell inmates, police officer exchanging real criminals with unsuspecting citizens for huge amount of money, police officers renting out arms and ammunitions to armed robbers, all these and many more are not fabrications but real life events. We have heard and read about various police killings in Nigeria; lets take some as examples for this article: About a year ago, Nigerians were so shocked reading about how five young men and woman were killed by police officers at dawn in Abuja for no reasons at all, we only heard about it because one of the victims escaped death. We also heard about the killing of a young school girl in Agege area of Lagos because of the driver of the commercial bus in which the late girl was traveling refused to stop and give the usual bribe, the police officer angrily fired at the bus killing the girl instantly. We have also read about two undergraduates cruising about town in Lagos way back in 2003, they were stopped for a routine check and an officer angrily opened fire killing the boys instantly. We have also heard and seen way back in 2001 when the police orderly attached to the former deputy Governor of Lagos state opened fire at Ilupeju area of Lagos killing instantly a Youth Corper waiting to board a commercial bus at a local bus stop. Lastly this is the most gruesome of all, we heard way back in 2000 when a routine police check in Lokoja turned into hellish death for six cattle sellers, the police stopped them on their way to replenishing their cattle stock and upon the discovery that they had a huge amount of cash, the police officers set them ablazed, carting away the goodies!!
What is really wrong with the NPF, what are the causative factors and remedies needed to jumpstart this decayed arm of governance? Most of us were not too shocked when the former Inspector General of Police Tafa Balogun was arraigned on fraud charges and made to pay back all the official funds he siphoned into his private accounts, we were made to believe that the siphoned money should have been used to better the lot of a local police officer but almost a year after the charges, do we have a better NPF at all? Capital NO of course, not for thing but the simple fact that the issues have become a dejavu and they will keep haunting us until some drastic measures are put in place. Let’s look at the basics of police welfarism, officer in the Metropolitan Police Force here in London, UK have a uniform collection of EIGHT WHITE SHIRTS, EIGHT BLUE TROUSERS, TWO PAIRS OF BACK SHOES, (The reason for the number 8 is just the fact that it relieves the officer the problems of laundry everyday as he is able to change on the 8th day to brand new neatly ironed shirt proving the opportunity to launder the dirty ones in preparation for the new week. Officers have a one hour lunch break to replenish lost energy, the salary is good atleast to a standard thereby erasing the issue of bribes, they have various incentives that alleviates poverty, if there is a word that within the rank and file of the Metropolitan Police Force. Police officers in Nigeria according to reports have it that a police officer provides his own uniform (that very dull black on black uniform synonymous with mourning) and shoes, now if this is true, why wont they ask for bribes and why won’t they become so callous in dispensing jungle justice to the public?
I am of the opinion that the only way out is an urgent diagnosis of these problems I have listed and these are my own opinions towards the betterment of the NPF:
These and many more are initiatives that should be taken onboard in our collective quest to making Nigeria great and anything short of these is tantamount to a dejavu
God bless Nigeria
WaleAkin lives in Kent, UK and a founding member of a group called MEN NOW!
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