Police vs Nigerians
By Aliyu Nuhu
Police authorities were angry for having the Nigeria police force ranked among the worst police in the world. But the police is its own worst enemy because it lacks effective Internal control and cleansing mechanism.
In 2019 NDLEA arrested a policeman in Borno who has been supplying drugs to Boko Haram. Two days ago a very bad video of a policeman went viral. He not only collected bribe, he short-changed his colleagues. The Police posted to guard former president Jonathan’s house stole everything including his clothes.
In 2017 when the people of Rijana said kidnappings along Kaduna-Abuja highway were carried out in collaboration with the police, the police authorities only transferred its men from the area and replaced them with another set. The bad ones were taken to another place to go and continue their trade. In the same year, the policemen sent to guard former president Jonathan’s house looted it bare and sold all the furniture and electronics. They broke doors and windows too. In short they vandalized the house!
Three years back, villagers on the Abuja highway blocked the highway to protest killing of vigilante informant by the kidnappers after he was given away by the police. In an interview, the kidnappers claimed to purchase their weapons from the police.
Nigerian Police is not only the most corrupt force in the world, it is also the most shameless and dangerous.
Imagine a former IG himself telling the world that he was free to sleep with any police woman of his choice. And he kept his words by impregnating and marrying one and promoting her in the service in return. Now retired, the former IG is said to be under demonic spell with the woman imprisoning him in the house. Where on earth but Nigeria can this happen without retribution?
The police had admitted being involved in kidnappings, the best thing is for the force to parade those men and dismiss them and at the same time prosecute them in courts.
There are good men and women in the police force no doubt, but one rotten egg in the bowl can spoil an omelette of thousands eggs. And there are more rotten eggs in the Nigeria police today.
The federal government should draft the military to restore sanity on the expressway. Military are involved in internal policing jobs because the police has failed to do its job.
It is that bad!
Aliyu Nuhu is a renowned social commentator. He writes from Abuja, Nigeria.