‘Police corruption aids youths’ involvement in crime’

Juliana Francis

The Youth Alive Foundation has demanded that the Police Reform Bill be quickly assented to, in order to check increasing number of youths embracing crime.

The Programme Officer, Youth Alive Foundation, Mr. Chamberlain Etukudo, speaking with a crop of journalists today at Ikeja, Lagos State, insisted that Police corruption directly increased youth crimes and human right abuses.

Etukudo explained: “Whenever police arrest young people, they allow them go after collecting bribe from them. These youths leave the station with the mindset that no matter the nature of the crime they commit, they can bribe their way out. They engage in crime, knowing that they’ll bribe to get out of the trouble.”

While commending efforts of different organisations that had contributed to the Police Reforms campaign, which had given birth to the bill, Etukudo said: “Our interest on the subject matter rest on the fact that youths are major victims of the atrocities of an unreformed Nigerian Police Force. As a youth organization that works with and for youths in Nigeria, we know youths deserve better.  Youths in Nigeria have suffered from unlawful detention and extortion, invasion of privacy, and irresponsible conduct by police officers. We still remember Kolade Johnson, who was killed for committing no crime other than being a sport lover.”

He noted that the police must be reformed to reflect the society. He also said that the reforms would boost youth confidence in the police and improve the strained relationship between the police and the Nigerian Youth.

“We fear that police brutality is increasing rather than decreasing. The Police Reform Bill is positioned to address gender discrimination and human rights abuse, ensure funding for policing and police welfare, and arbitrary arrest and detention,” said Etukudo.

Ms. Emmanuella Azu, Programme Officer Ward C, a nongovernmental organization that focuses on women challenges, remarked that aside from youths, women were also being targeted by the police.

Making reference to the Caramelo Lounge incident, in FCT, Abuja, where women, alleged to be sex workers, were raided and manhandled, Azu described the raid as despicable. This was even as she further disclosed that the police forced some of the women, who didn’t have money for bail, to have sex with them.

According to her, series of petitions on the matter had been directed to the office of the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, seeking redress on behalf of the women, but mum had been the word.

Azu said: “When police raided the hotel, the women were marched out naked. That was totally unacceptable. These women didn’t infringe on anybody’s rights. I see the raids as deliberate attack on women because of the mindset of the policemen and a patriarchal society. The behaviour of the policemen was anti-human. There are procedures to effect arrest, but those procedures were not followed. Since the incident, police had not come forward to debunk the allegations, rather more raids of women had continued.”