The Shame of the Nigeria Police Force

The Shame of the Nigeria Police Force

By Leo Igwe

Recently, I was involved in getting prosecuted a man who raped a ten-year-old girl in Imo state in Southern Nigeria. In the course of this, I visited several police stations in Southeastern Nigeria where I met, interacted and encountered various police officers. And I must say that I was deeply shocked and disappointed by what I saw-by what I noticed going on at the police stations in the name of police work.
In this piece I will share with you some of my experiences and insights, and hope that the Nigerian government would find them useful in its efforts to fight corruption and enthrone the rule of law in the country.
As we all know, the police force is one of the important organs in a state, -especially prevention of crimes and in the maintenance and enforcement of law and order. Without the police, the society would probably descend into chaos and anarchy.
So, the police institution is critical to the realization of a just, peaceful, and progressive society. Normally, police stations are places people should go to freely to register complains or seek protection. A police station is a place every citizen ought to go without fear of exploitation, extortion, and harassment and be sure to be treated with dignity and respect whether the person is rich or poor, able or disabled.
The police stations -and police officers- should be there for all the people, not some. But in Nigeria, this is not the case. The Police system is so corrupt and inept. Police stations are places people avoid if they really want justice and peace. Police stations are for the rich and powerful. Hence poor people are afraid to go there to report cases because they cannot afford the costs.
In a police station in Owerri, it costs up to 20 thousand naira(170 dollars) to mobilize police officers after a case had been reported. At the zonal headquarters, police officers charge up to 40 thousand naira(380 dollars) before they can get into action. The mobilization fee is negotiated and paid directly to the Investigation Police officer (IPO) who does not issue any receipts for the payment. Non-payment of mobilization fee means that the case would be attended to. It means that the complaint would be thrown aside no matter how serious it is.
In Owerri, I saw a police officer cajoling and making caricature of a widow who brought a petition to the station because she could not afford the mobilization fee. And at the zonal headquarters in Umuahia a police officer went to the extent of walking out a complainant who was reluctant to paying his fee. Meanwhile the mobilization fee is not legal. The money doesn’t go to the government but to the pockets of the police officers themselves. I was shocked when a senior police officer in Owerri told me that it costs nothing to report a case to the Police.
Apart from the mobilization fee, another means police officers use to make money from people who bring or have cases at the stations is the bail. Normally, we are told that the bail is free. But at the police stations is not. Police officers go to any length to stop and frustrate lawyers from securely ‘free bails’ for their clients. There is no fixed amount for a bail. A junior police officer at a Divisional Office in Mbaise told me that when it comes to bailing someone, ‘action is determined by the situation.’ In other words, the amount of money one pays for a bail is determined by the charges brought, the kind of person (s) involved, the police station and the time or day of the week the bail is to be effected etc. At a local police station in Mbaise, it costs up to 5000 naira (0 dollars)to bail someone. While at the state and zonal headquarters it costs much more.
Police officers negotiate for bails in such way that any thinking person would know that the money is meant for them, not for the government. Accused persons are made pay more for bails on Fridays than at any other time of the week. Otherwise they are detained till Monday the following week. Police officers readily invoke the law to justify their extortions, illegal detentions, human rights abuses and other inhuman and degrading treatment they met out to people at the stations.
Another device police officers use to extort money from innocent civilians is by transferring case files from one IPO to another. For every case reported at the police station some mobilization fee is paid to the IPO by the complainant. And the accused persons also pay to be granted bail. What some unscrupulous police officers do after they had exhausted all the avenues of getting money from a particular case is to transfer the case file to another IPO who re-invites the accused person(s) after he had been mobilized, and makes the suspect(s) to go through the whole process again.
I know of a case reported at a police station in Umuahia which went through three IPOs within six months. Sometimes, the transfer of case files is a device which some mischievous complainants use in collaboration with police officers to further punish and victimized the accused persons especially when they do not have any substantial claim.
Another way police officers use to make money from cases brought to the station is through the loss of case files. From time to time, case files get missing at police stations across the country. But is it because our police officers are so careless? No, not at all. This is what happens. An accused person who notices that the weight of evidence is so much against him could pay the IPO who would handover the case file to him to destroy. The case file of a 55-year-old man who raped a ten-year-old girl got missing at a police station in Owerri this year. So at our Police stations, money determines everything. Police officers are always ready to compromise their job as long as one is ready to pay them. Hence the police system has become a tool which ‘rich’, mischievous and ‘powerful’ individuals in communities use to oppress and victimize the poor, the weak and the less privileged. A junior police officer in Umuahia told me that the police are like harlots, if you pay them, they render their services to you and move on. I raised these issues with a senior police officer at the zonal headquarters in Umuahia. And he blamed this ugly and embarrassing situation on the poor emolument of police officers. He told me that the basic salary of a police officer is 4, 500 naira. I saw a police corporal who earns 8,000 naira per month. According to this senior officer, the rank-and-file officers are angry. And they visit their anger and frustration on the people who bring petitions to the station and on the society at large. He explained that the salary of the Inspector General of Police was not up to a hundred thousand in a month. But he controls votes that worth billions of naira. He noted that the problem the former Inspector General Police Tafa Balogun had was that he tampered with the votes. While senior Police officers tamper with their official votes to compliment their salaries, the rank and file officers rely on what they can make- and squeeze out – of the petitions brought to the stations including the money they extort from drivers and commuters on our roads. What a shame! So what we have today in the name of the Police force is actually a bunch of mostly angry, demoralized, corrupt, hostile, incompetent, cash –for – hand- back-for-ground officers who do not have the good of this nation and its citizens at heart. Surely this is not the kind of police system that can guard a true democracy in Nigeria. This is not the kind of police force Nigeria needs to achieve sustainable development in this 21st century.
But we must admit that the work of the police in our society today is dangerous. That everyday police officers risk their lives for our sake. They expose themselves to a lot of harm and death. In the past few months, several police officers have been shot dead at banks and on the highways. So the work of the police is such that nobody should expect them to do it with little or no motivation from the government. And I want the Federal Government to listen to this: Commissioning police officers at very little pay is doing a great disservice to this nation. It is like giving them a license to go and rob civilians. It is like providing them with a justification for their criminalities, illegalities and atrocities.
But the meagre salary which police officers receive should not be a reason why they should become arm robbers in uniform, and convert the police stations into extortion and exploitation grounds. There are still lots of Nigerians who receive meager wages and still go about their business within the limits of decency and law. So the Nigeria Police Force is in need of a total, thorough and comprehensive reform that will equip, enable and motivate officers to fulfill their constitutional roles. This reform is needed to restore the credibility and integrity of the police force. The reform should aim at putting in place an effective police system with competent, courageous, committed and incorruptible officers. I am aware that this is not going to be an easy task given the depth of decadence and ineptitude in the Police force. But I think it is possible. I think it is realizable. Infact a credible police force is absolutely necessary to move this nation forward. Hence I am appealing to President Musa Yar’Adua to make police reform a priority. Otherwise all his efforts to enthrone the rule of law would end up in futility.

Leo Igwe is the executive secretary of the Nigerian Humanist Movement

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