Rivers crisis: The Nigerian police and professionalism

Nigeria has experienced a lot of bad times and seasons but one perpetually bad season she has continued to experience is called the Nigerian Police Force. While I would love to include all the Nigerian security/intelligence forces in this bad season category it would be a good start point to just consider the police force as one bad season too many and I would stick with writing about them.

The conflicting roles played by police officers attached to different characters during the day of the Rivers State House of Assembly mayhem is very telling and instructive of the lessons that should be learnt and taught to the police hierarchy.

In the video in which Chidi Llyod was seen “macing” a colleague, I saw a police officer join his SSS colleagues (guys with belted guns) beat up a lawmaker within the chambers of the RSHA and in another video you could see a mobile police officer accompany Evans Bipi and was basically assisting Evans and his thugs seeking to gain entry into the chambers.

In the first case I was shocked beyond words to see a policeman beat up a lawmaker. While assault and battery should be a crime, it becomes even more insane when the individual who should enforce that law preventing indiscriminate assault and battery and possibly broker peace take sides and unleash the same crime on a properly elected official of the state, a LAWMAKER!

In the second instance, the mobile policeman that accompanied Evans Bipi and his thugs was trying to assist them gain entry into the chambers of the RSHA. He was even being advised by his colleagues guarding the doors to back down and behave professionally but he would have none of it.

Those scenes tell tales of how unprofessional the Nigerian Police Force have become and the need to quickly nip this unprofessionalism in the bud. The willingness of members of the police force to do the bidding of their immediate benefactors has become too easy and to think they do it without shame is very worrisome.

Moving around Nigeria, you will observe how the mobile police unit of the NPF has become the private security of individuals, banks and other private institutions. As a Port-Harcourt resident, you see them minute-by-minute blaring sirens and flouting the state’s traffic laws as they create routes in traffic while guarding foreign nationals. One 4WD vehicle carrying an expatriate could have as many as eight (8) mobile policemen in two (2) pick-up trucks guarding him/her. Matter of factly, I now regard the mobile police force as the commercialized part of the force generating revenue for the pockets of the various Ogas At The Top.

The speeches, actions and inactions of both the Rivers State commissioner of police and the IG also speaks volumes of where allegiance lie and path they would kow-tow  in a bid to perform their duties going forward.

I once read a Jeffrey Archer novel where the US attorney-general through the FBI was investigating the presidency for a murder and preparing charges to arrest the president before a breakthrough in the case revealed the Chief of Staff as the prime suspect who was then indicted and arrested. Here in Nigeria the body language of the presidency is one of “Above-the-Law”. You are seemingly untouchable once you get a presidential appointment.

Have you ever seen the NPF comb a crime scene for clues and evidence or even do something close to that like it is done in western movies? Here in Nigeria, the police appear hours or even days after the crime and then arrest anyone and everyone in sight so as reap bail money from them and their families. It is fantasy to ask for presidential investigation or that the police comb a crime scene properly in Nigeria because the mind can only conceive that in an environment where it is closely possible.

The other day it was revealed how decrepit and run-down the Ikeja Police Training College had become but instead of investigating how the funds for maintaining the institution was mis-managed and mis-appropriated, how the place for training criminal-catchers had become worse than where criminals are punished, the government (through the president for that matter) came out defending the police hierarchy and blamed the opposition for the revelation. That just trivialised the issues and showed us government-police relationship already skewed to ensure that the police doesn’t work independently, sincerely and with integrity.

In light of our “nascent” democracy and civilian rule what efforts have been made to ensure that members of the police force are trained on how to respect the rights and priviledges of civilian members of the society to whom they owe a duty of protection? Do Nigerian police officers and men know their responsibilities before and during elections and through the period of our democratic practice? Are they fully aware of the position they hold in society and need to be apolitical and unbiased when carrying-out these responsities? The response to these questions will be in the negative when you consider the examples of the two police officers described earlier as well as their bosses, the Rivers CP and the IG.

This sorry state of the Nigerian Police Force should be a serious bother to all well-meaning Nigerians who want to see a new, prosperous and truly democratic Nigeria. We can go no-where with this swinging, biased, ill-trained and un-professional police force.

A radical change needs to birth in the Nigerian Police Force and quickly too.

When N18 million goes missing, who will police the police?

 

 

 

Some of the major bedrocks of any sane society are properly thought-ou laws and the ability to enforce and uphold those laws. Many times, it is the responsibility of an impartial police force to enforce the laws.

 

Haven said that, whose responsibility is it to monitor the law enforcers and guide those who implement the law? I mean, who will police the police?

 

The importance of this question will be evident following this true life story you are about to read.

 

It was Tuesday the 14th of April, 2009, we had just resumed from the Easter holiday weekend and I was “Head Teller” at the bank in Afikpo, Ebonyi state where I worked at the time. The Head Teller held the vault keys, had responsibility for managing the bank’s vault position during the period and the position was usually rotated forth-nightly among all four tellers in the bank.

 

In that season, banks in Ebonyi state had been under attack from armed robbers and the state governor was paying deaf ears to repeated pleas by the bank managers for a “joint patrol” kind of policing within the state. So being the head teller and with knowledge of the fragile security situation I did my job with great fear hoping the fears do not materialise.

 

Alas, at about 12.30pm we started hearing gunshots outside and we immediately realised that we were under attack with our branch as the target. All the staff and customers downstairs ran into the bulk room which had “bullet-proof” doors. The Head of Operations (H.O.P) remained in her office, under the table out of shock.

 

After about 20mins of shooting, using dynamites on the electronic entry/exit doors, the robbers gained entry into the banking hall. They had overpowered the 5 mobile policemen we usually hired at fifty thousand naira weekly to guard our premises.

 

The robbers seized the H.O.P and at gun point she asked us to open the bulk room doors, which the cash officer (C.O) hurriedly did while shouting and crying “please don’t shoot, please don’t shoot”.

 

The robbers entered the bulk room and immediately demanded for the keys to the vault. Lying down, face-down, eyes closed, I pointed at the keys I had thrown towards the door when we ran into the bulk room when the shooting started. I was slapped and asked to pick it up and with pains and head bowed, I picked up the keys and was led, alongside the H.O.P and C.O to the vault room.

 

In the vault room, as we carefully and hurriedly opened the safes, I was hit with a long rechargeable lamp that we usually used for lighting within the vault, and asked to put the money in the very large “Ghana-must-go” bag the robbers had brought in with them. (After the robbery, the money was determined to be N18million).

 

We (me, the H.O.P and C.O) quietly emptied our safes into the bag and then all of a sudden the two guys who had led us to the vault, pointed at me, the only male of the group to carry the bag for them. I was terrified but with tears rolling down my face and Psalm 91 reciting in my head, I complied and carried the extremely heavy bag.

 

One of the robbers, with his AK-47 rifle pointed at me, led me out to the parked bus in front of the bank, which the robbers arrived with. From the two robbers that came into the bulk room and led us to the vault, to others in the banking hall and more outside, I had counted about 10 to 12 robbers.

 

After dropping the bag of money in the bus I was led back into the vault by the same guy that led me out and this time he was shouting, “Where the 2nd vault? Where the 2nd vault? I will kill you all now.”

 

We replied that he had taken everything we had and there was no 2nd vault, pleading with him to spare our lives. He asked us to lie down and go nowhere and then he left. We could hear them shouting codes and driving off in their bus a little while after.

 

During the 30 to 45 minutes that the robbery lasted, the police did not come close to our premises neither did we hear sirens to signify their arrival. Although unknown to us and the robbers, the police had laid ambush along the exit road out of town through which the robbers would drive. The police ambush was successful and they gunned down the driver of the bus and vehicle somersaulted severally.

 

The police were then able to capture the rest of the robbers following which we were invited to come and identify them. My branch manager and the H.O.P ( I was still in shock) went to identify them. All this happened within a period of 30 – 45minutes after the robbery. The robbers that didn’t die from the police shoot-out and identified by the H.O.P were killed right there and then in front of her.

 

Then the shocker: The police claimed that one of the robbers ran away with the bag of money. (How does one individual run with a bag of money I found really difficult to carry?)

 

A lady, said to have held their charms and reciting incantations while the robbery was on-going was kept alive as the bodies were tossed onto a Toyota Hilux van and conveyed to the state capital, Abakaliki, that evening.

 

The bank, without making any effort to have its staff treated for trauma, sent in auditors from Enugu, the regional headquarters, to come and scrutinize the books ensuring more stealing did not happen within. They also sent contractors to immediately come and start the process of renovating the premises.

 

Two days later, as I was watching the 7pm state TV news, the robbery incident was on the news and the state Commissioner of Police (CP) was parading the “charms lady” and weapons used. He said most of the robbers were killed in a gun duel with the police and that only Six thousand, four hundred and forty naira (N6,440.00) was recovered! Yes, you read that right. Only 6,440naira was recovered of the 18million naira I had been forced to carry to the waiting bus. I was flabbergasted!

 

On the Friday morning following the Tuesday robbery, we (me, the H.O.P, the C.O and I.T staff) were invited to report to the state C.I.D headquarters before 7am. There we were kept in an office and asked to write statements upon statements (I wrote 5 statements) which the officers came in to collect, read and tear before asking us to write another.

 

We remained there writing statements without food or water until at about 6pm when they said they would detain the I.T staff while the rest of us could go home. The I.T staff was locked up all through the weekend up until Tuesday the following week when his family came to bail him.

 

After I returned home and analyzed the entire situation while the bank renovation was on-going, I realised that we were not safe. We were the targets of both the armed robbers and the police who could have sent them for all I care. I resigned about 3 weeks after that incident just as the renovation was being completed.

 

This event, in which luckily no innocent customer or by-stander was killed, brings to mind a million and one pertinent questions:

 

a) How did the robbers get the kind of guns they possessed and used in the operation? Could it be the police that rented it to them?

 

b) Who should ensure that the police are well kitted and able to withstand such attacks such that the 5 mobile policemen in our premises wouldn’t have to run away?

 

c) How possible is it really, that only one robber ran away with such a big bag of money I found very difficult to carry?

 

d) Why did the police kill all the robbers they had captured if they didn’t have anything to hide, in terms of the missing money and weapons used?

 

e) Is it possible that the C.P was complicit in the disappearance of the money (18million is no small change) haven been given his share?

 

f) How come nobody within the police force (A.I.G etc) bothered to further investigate the disappearance of the money and why the robbers were killed?

 

g) Basically, who will police the Nigerian Police Force to ensure this kind of incidences don’t happen?

 

To this day, I get jittery whenever I have to spend more that 5minutes in the banking hall and would not wish that experience on anyone.

 

In light of the present revelations of the state of the Police Training Colleges, we all should know that Nigeria cannot be great with this kind of police force. The Inspector-General, Mohammed Abubakar, as well as the entire police leadership have their work cut out for them.

 

Whether they recognise the enormous task they have to accomplish or have the ability to perform beyond our expectations is a subject for another day. For now, we would keep watching and give them the benefit of doubt.

 

 

Ukpetenan Frank Obehi

THE NIGERIAN POLLUTED FORCE

Long before any Nigerian of my generation (the UP NEPA generation) knew how to define corruption, we could describe it.

Any road junction having 4 – 5 policemen doing some kind of revenue collection was the perfect way to explain corruption – Egunje collection.

Over the years the Nigerian Police Force has so epitomized corruption that the late Fela Anikulapo-Kuti described a police station as a bank, with the Divisional Police Officer (D.P.O) as bank manager. In Fela’s thinking, which I subscribe to, the police station had perfected the act of marketing corruption, setting targets for the corrupt marketers (police officers) and actually deriving revenue from their activities both within and outside the police station. They had police tellers, police note-counters and police funds transfer officers processing the daily cash proceeds, declaring profits and daily take-home pay.

It was like a true breath of fresh air when the current Inspector-General of police, Mohammed Abubakar, ordered a ban police road blocks and released phone numbers which members of the public could call to report any flouting of his orders. He had done the miraculous. In Warri and PH, cities I’m familiar with, crime actually reduced after this ban. My thinking is since police officers did not have need for weapons outside the station, there was scarcity of weapons for them or the so-called actual criminals to perpetuate crime with.

Unfortunately that singular act would not and cannot rid the NPF of corruption as the rotten eggs within a system the IG is still very much part of, still holds sway.

The Edo state governor, Adams Oshiomole, had during a recent police launching in Abuja, which had the vice-president in attendance, made some allegations which he backed with reason and a threat to release documents if his allegations were not taken seriously. He accused the Deputy Inspector General of police put in-charge of investigations into the murder of his Principal Private Assistant, Olaitan Oyerinde, of complicity and deliberately bungling the investigation. Oshiomole had categorically accused the D.I.G of being too lazy to do his job.

He stated that the D.I.G had paraded a gun already in police custody as the murder weapon, paraded already incarcerated “criminals” as being responsible for the murder as well as wrongly arresting Olaitan’s friend, Rev David Ugolor, the last outsider to see Olaitan alive.

The IG, in his reckless and “un-police-manly” response, stood reason on the head and betrayed his profession by saying the governor didn’t know what he was talking about. He further said the NPF would respond to the governor at the appropriate time.

That was the most stupid thing any police man could do. The IG as head of the police force should know better than to trivialize allegations. He really should have just shut his mouth if he had nothing better to say than to so blatantly rubbish a weighty allegation made by a sitting governor. He should have listened properly to the governor and then re-opened the investigation, putting it in the hands of a more competent and trusted lieutenant.

The IG basically killed the case and emboldened his ineffective subordinates involved in that investigation to believe they didn’t need to be afraid or do any more work. The governor’s allegations would no longer hold water after their overall boss had carelessly trounced it. The IG was absolutely wrong to have made that statement without first, as a police officer, considering all the facts or heresy that the governor was speaking.

I make bold to say that this IG is and will be no different from his predecessors. I wouldn't be surprised if in no distant time we start hearing stories of his own corruption, mis-appropriation of funds and reckless abuse of power. He is part of and sits atop a system that has so marketed corruption hence his only response was to save his lazy non-performing lieutenants.

The IG would only save face and prove me and the numerous others watching his actions and reactions wrong by re-opening the Olaitan murder case, doing a proper investigation and for once give the police a good name. There is very little time but I want to believe Mohammed Abubakar, the Inspector General of police would cease to bring me shame.

Ukpetenan Frank Obehi