January 30, 2008
Corruption is endemic in the Nigeria Police, just as policemen engage in nefarious activities Corruption has been another reason that the Nigeria Police has engaged in the dance of the penguin: one forward, two backwards. Alhaji Abubakar Tsav, a former Lagos State police commissioner, told this magazine in the past that corruption had been with the police for a very long time. But he explained that the former Inspector-General of Police, Tafa Balogun, who stole N17 billion, institutionalised it.
Tsav argued: “Under Balogun, money could do everything in the Police Force. Before people are recruited into the Nigeria Police, a person pays between N25,000 and N30,000 and if you paid such amount, it is like an investment because when you pass out, you have to recover your money, even with interest.”
This contagion of corruption percolates down the entire rank and file who extort money from members of the public. To pep up their welfare, some policemen in Cross River State have turned the guns assigned to them for duty to engage in robbery operations. “During the Christmas festivities, most of the robberies in Calabar were perpetrated by or with the active connivance of the police. For instance in Ikot Enim where I live, robbers attacked the pastor of our church, Assemblies of God, and carted away N250, 000 along with other valuables. I can tell you that we were able to recognise some of the robbers as policemen. We decided not to make a case of it because who do we report to and how do we guarantee our safety after that?” Pastor Iyam, of Assemblies of God told TheNEWS.
Another robbery victim, Tony Bassey said he was frisked at the Millennium Park on 1 December 2007 where he went to attend the flag-off of the Christmas festival party when he was accosted by robbers. “The police were watching when the robbers operating on an okada stopped me and took my phone and my salary that I had just collected from the bank. After the robbers had sped away, the policemen came to me and asked if I was robbed? I simply moved away without answering them!” Bassey said with disgust.
The prolonged state of affairs in the Police Force has so traumatised its workforce that even the recently announced salary increase seems not to be creating the right impact; their psyche is still adversely affected. This has continued to make them engage in excesses. Some regularly get drunk, thus leaving their beats to suffer. For instance when TheNEWS visited one of the police divisions at about 11 am , the orderly said: “Oga just reported; you have to wait because he is dressing. He does not go home with his uniform.”
On further prodding, he revealed that the DPO, a Superintendent of Police, “leaves the office straight to his drinking joint and gets home at about 12.30am . That is why he comes to work late and since he cannot go to the drinking joint with his uniform, he keeps them here.”
To confirm the orderly’s story, when the DPO spoke, his breath stank of alcohol.
“Guns and ammunition are not our problem in this command. We have enough, but the question is to what use they are deployed to,” quipped a police inspector when asked if they had adequate ammunition to combat crime in the state. Often the guns are used to intimidate and snuff life out of innocent people. For instance, sometime in 2007, policemen accosted a young man who was returning from a drinking pub with his friend. They accused them of being cultists and threatened to shoot them. When one of them protested and cried for help, bullets were pumped into him and he died. His friend was taken to the Goldie Cemetery, a dreaded police execution spot in Calabar, and asked to dig a shallow grave for his burial, which he refused, demanding to be killed like his friend. The police left, since they did not want to ‘soil their hands that night digging a grave,” the young man told TheNEWS.
Across the state, at strategic points, portakabins have been mounted, with pick-up vans, to serve what the former governor, Mr. Donald Duke called “Tourism Police”. Set up to provide security for tourists, they are heavily funded by the state government. Robberies have significantly reduced across the state. In their character, however, some have used their strategic locations as opportunity to collect the usual N20.00 largesse from road users.
In some situations when policemen do not engage in robbery directly, they compromise by lending guns to robbers.
About three years ago, Ehindero sacked nine cops for selling and illegally moving arms. He paraded ASP James Faga, AC Armour Kaduna Armament; Inspectors John Gaiza, Gregory Ngaji, David Dawa, Danjuma Gobong and Solomon Dunkat. Others were sergeants Peter Odah, Sunday Asubahi and Musa Waziri.
However, the police authorities have come up with a new welfare package that includes 100 per cent salary increase. A constable’s monthly pay was increased from N8,000 and N10,000 to N22,000 and N27,000. A corporal, who used to earn N13,000 now receives N28,000 while a sergeant’s pay has been increased from N15,000 to N31,000.
An inspector, whose salary was N22,000, is now to earn between N50,000 and N52,000. An Assistant Superintendent of Police now goes home with N83,000 as against N40,000, while a Deputy Superintendent would receive N90,000 as against the previous N45,000. A full Superintendent’s salary has been jacked up from N50,000 to N100,000.
Will this curb corruption in the system?
All these problems notwithstanding, Okiro, the new IG, roled out a nine-point agenda for the effective policing of the country. These are: transparency/accountability, war on corruption/crime, crime prevention, intelligence/crime data base upgrade and police public image/public relations. Others are human rights, community policing and inter-agency cooperation.
But the IG vowed to place emphasis on crime prevention.
These, however, depend on the seriousness of the Yar’Adua government to, as critics maintained, come to the aid of the Nigeria police. Are the committee members reading this?
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