With Joke Adeniyi-Jackson
The young man was visibly shaken as he narrated his alleged ordeal in the hands of a team of policemen on patrol, penultimate week. Running an errand for his parents, the 21-year-old ran into policemen on patrol at the Post Office area of Ilorin, Kwara State. According to him, a bus painted in ash colour pulled over by his side and one of the operatives jumped down from the vehicle and ordered him to get inside the Car.
Given the stories making the rounds about police brutality, instinctively he wanted to take to his heels. “I will shoot you if you move an inch,” the policeman was said to have growled at him as he noisily adjusted the AK 47 slung on his shoulder. “I became petrified and was transfixed to a spot. The policeman accused me of being a robber and yahoo Yahoo boy (an internet fraudster), but attempt to debunk the claim earned me a big blow to the chin, followed by severe beating by the officer and another colleague of his,” the University of Ilorin undergraduate narrated. He was reportedly freed after a search was conducted on his phone and nothing incriminating was found on it. Like a hare he raced back home and lived in fear for days as a result of the ‘near death’ traumatic experience. The case of the undergraduate is not an isolated one. A friend also related how her husband who had gone to a beer parlour in Sabo area of Ilorin to relax after the day’s job ended up in police net, sometime last year. He was said to have been picked alongside others by operatives of the state police command, who claimed they were raiding darks spots within the metropolis and was only released after he allegedly parted with some cash.
There have been scores of unreported cases of extortion and harassment by people who are being paid to protect lives. Recall that sometime last year, police brutality on students of Unilorin living off campus in Tanke area of the metropolis, made news. This has undoubtedly breached the trust members of the public have in the police. It is quite unfortunate that some Nigerian law enforcement officers carry out their duties in aggressive and intimidating ways. This has made many to see the police as fiend and not as friend. However, this is not to say that all policemen are guilty of ill; such actions can only be blamed on the few bad apples that wants to spoil the barrel.
Therefore, the stern verbal declaration against the ugly trend by the state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Kayode Egbetokun, is cheering. This will no doubt stop the culture of excessive force and brutality by officers of the law enforcement agency , as well as help the police to regain public trust. The CP at a press conference in Ilorin on Tuesday, vowed that the state Command will henceforth arrest, prosecute and charge any policeman caught extorting money from the public while bearing firearms with the offence of armed robbery. He said all policemen in the command as well as those on patrol have been intimated of the new development; meaning there will be no excuse for such dastardly action. The police boss explained that while the policemen have the responsibility of conducting stop and search, such should be done within the provisions of the law.
He also declared as unethical for any policeman to seize and search anybody’s mobile phone on the road, adding that the practice of searching the phone of an individual on the road for evidence of internet fraud amount to conducting roadside investigation. He further said such act if it ended in extortion or done with intent to extort becomes a criminal offence.
While one wants to commend the CP for taking such hard stance on the issue to save the command from being wrongly labelled, he must be seen to match his words with action. Operatives caught in the act should be made to face the music. The bad elements must be subjected to disciplinary procedures to serve as deterrent to others. There should be no sacred cow in the effort to sanitise the command of such vice(s).
Nevertheless, officers in the state command must always have it at the back of their minds that their primary duty is to protect the people and the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. They need not pose threat to lives of innocent and unarmed citizens in the course of carrying out that roles as security agents. It is by so doing that they can elicit cooperation from members of the public for them to work effectively and serve the society better.
