Juliana Francis
Mohammed Adamu |
We’re back to where we were some years ago and my
stance has not changed.
When people called for the scrapping of SARS, I was
against it and today I’m against the disbanding of IRT satellite offices across
the country.
Different IGP’s have this mad penchant for
dismantling working tools, while they bring nothing to the table. I don’t know who they are trying to impress.
After Tafa Balogun, Mohammed Abubakar and Solomon
Arase, I’ve not seen any IGP putting much effort into the police and welfare
issues of personnel.
We keep making the same decisions and mistakes, yet we
fail to tackle the real issues. Police continue to cut the branches of the
tree, instead of uprooting it.
Like my late friend DIG
John Haruna used to say, corruption in the Police is a systemic problem, not a
unit problem. The police is a microcosm of the Nigerian society.
Different IGPs repeatedly
failed to consolidate on their predecessors’ creations and achievements, reason
we keep retrogressing and circling same potholes for years. One step forward,
10 steps backward.
We’ve been on this beat
for years and we shouldn’t pretend to be an ostrich. We know the issues. What
we need is change, not power play, political intrigues, petty jealousies or
tantrums.
It’s sheer foolishness
to sacrifice your joker during a card game. And for those that are not clear
about the situation, IRT has not been disbanded, only its satellite offices. It
means they will be working from Abuja, using the same personnel. Please take
note of, “same personnel.”
Solomon Arase created IRT
and only someone who doesn’t know the inner workings of the police, will say they
had not achieved great and unimaginable feats. IRT redefined investigations out
of nothing.
Many of the operatives died
in the process. They target high profile cases and it’s no mean feat to crack
such cases. Oh, how Nigerians easily forget.
Nobody ever talks about
the dead policemen or those maimed in the line of duty.
Why? How come no NGO
has been formed to look into the cause of policemen and fight for them? Why are
wounded policemen abandoned and the families of the dead left to their fates?
These are part of the
issues that continue to give rise to corruption in the police, with these guys
mouthing, “Everyman to himself and God for us all.”
Ibrahim Idris came on
board and created STS. For what? Beats me! The Unit was practically doing the same
work as IRT. Every time IRT makes a commendable arrest, STS will ride on its
back. You’ll hear, “the operation was carried out by intelligence and tactical
support from STS.” Nonsense!
I don’t even know what
Idris was thinking when he created STS or what he had hoped to achieve. Just as
IRT had satellite offices, so also did STS. For wetin naaa? A waste of manpower!
Some politicians will
just sit in their offices and make anybody an IGP. They don’t even bother to
examine his level of intelligence.
What can we remember
Idris for? Aside from policemen and women on different WhatsApp platforms
sharing information on how much to pay for promotions and how much they paid,
what else?
We wrote and wrote stories
until our fingers developed muscle pull and arthritis, yet nothing was done
about payment for promotions during the Idris era. And people think we have
leaders.
This same STS are the
ones creating problems and damaging the police's already battered image here and
there. When you have children, all working on the same units and committing
similar offences, you pick on the worst and hammer on it.
STS atrocities since
its creation have become legendary. Does this mean that IRT, Anti-Cultism or
SARS units are filled by saints? Far from it?
Do they commit human
rights violations? Yes. But STS puts others to shame. For long, I’ve been
complaining of STS human rights violations, but who listens to an old woman?
Don’t even let me begin
to tell you stories of last year and this year. The last story I did on STS, I had
to co opt online media. Premium Times did a job. Punch did well too.
I’ve learnt to pick my
battles. I don’t jump into every fray. I delve into issues that angers or
saddens me, seeking for justice with my piece. I can never understand the
rationale of suspects dying in custody. A suspect died in STS custody this year
and till date, we don’t know the truth of what happened.
This brings me to the
crux of my argument. If the police hierarchy are saying, they are not aware of
what some of these policemen are doing, including extortions, torture and
arrest before investigations, they lie!
You cleanse the stable,
not by always dismantling and disbanding working and achieving units, but targeting
the bad eggs.
Let’s come back to the
calls that SARS should be scrapped. SARS is just a unit in the police. The unit
can’t operate without human beings. Since I started covering the beat, SARS Units
are known for achieving results, but they are reckless when it comes to human
rights violations and extortions. Anti-Cultism is closely behind it.
If you scrap SARS Units
and create another unit to tackle robberies and other heinous crimes, who will
be working these Units? Is it not the same human beings? The same policemen,
with the same mindsets, characters, with the same recklessness and same
disregard for human rights? Policemen who lack shame and behave like armed robbers?
What would the police hierarchy
have achieved if they had listened to the call to scrap SARS? Absolutely
nothing! The problem in the police is not about the units, it’s about the personnel.
Mohammed Abubakar
checked the prevalence of roadblocks in Nigeria when it was becoming a nightmare.
People thought it couldn’t be achieved, but he did it. He left and the
roadblocks came back. These days, you can count hundreds travelling from Lagos
to the east.
Solomon Arase warned
policemen to stop checking phones without warrant and it worked, now he’s out
of Louis Edet House and the act of forcibly collecting phones from Nigerians to
check their bank balances are back.
If anyone takes a peep
into the Force Headquarters, Abuja, he’ll see catalogues of complaints against policemen,
especially from lawyers and rights activists. How many of these policemen have been
queried or investigated? Do I think PSC is doing enough in attending to Nigerians’
complaints on corruption in the police? No!
Journalists report
every day about policemen and human rights violations. Some journalists even
take pains to mention names, rank and offices of the offending policemen and
yet nothing will be done about them.
These are the bad eggs,
why not sack them? Don’t give them a second chance. Why will the Force continue
to retain a police team that arrested a suspect and forced him to transfer
N1.5million to an account at gunpoint? If that’s not robbery, I don’t know
what is.
You don’t leave the
team and then go after the units they work, to start disbanding them. Nobody is
thinking about the dynamism and cosmopolitan nature of crime and criminals.
We need to start
weeding out these disgruntled and corrupt elements. To achieve this is not a
dash, it’s a marathon. We do it bit by bit, picking one policeman after the
other to chase out.
Emohimi Edgal earned my
respect. I knew Edgal when he was just a DPO at Ikeja. But I’d always felt he
was too brash and rude. We never became close. He then became CP in Lagos and
my stance on him changed.
I didn’t have to like
him to know that he gave his all into policing Lagos. He worked like a maniac
and went to crime scenes. He was not an armchair policeman. He achieved great
feats.
Most importantly,
during his time in Lagos, I got used to hearing policemen being arrested for
human rights violations. He arrested many policemen. Many went through Orderly
Room Trials. Many were sacked and others were demoted.
I got used to hearing
policemen complain that cells at the Lagos State Police Command were full
with policemen detained by Edgal.
Policemen working in
Lagos began to tread on eggshells. The fear of Edgal became the beginning of
wisdom.
What the heck is the police
leadership doing in Abuja? What is PSC doing? Don’t they read newspapers? Don’t
they read online news? The atrocities of these corrupt policemen are therein every
day. Kick them out of the system. Stop collecting money from them in order to shield
them from the consequences of their actions.
Don’t transfer them to
another state and return them when the case has been forgotten. That’s sheer
rubbish! Such transfers is the police hierarchy saying, “Oh boy go to Taraba State
to continue your extortions and killings. Nobodi sabi you there.”
Let’s also not forget that
those top officers at Abuja, are often the ones encouraging these policemen to
commit shocking human rights violations, with the end purpose being pecuniary
gains.
Imagine the case of a
guy that was killed in Anambra State. He was abducted in his house, blindfolded
with his boxer and marched out. The following day his corpse was found. His
wife saw the faces of the kidnappers. They were members of their communities
and till date, some senior policemen, who claimed to be working in legal
departments, Force headquarters and Anambra State Police Command, have been handling
the case like monkeys. It is instructive to mention that the prime suspect is
rich.
You don’t come around
to destroy a unit that’s a success story because of a few bad eggs. Yes, I said
a few. We have millions of policemen and not all of them are corrupt. Just as
we have corrupt journalists, traders, activists, politicians, lawyers, pastors
and others. I can go on.
It was in this country,
some lawyers and activists in Anambra State made attempts to give an award to a
policeman, who everyone knew had killed too many people. This, however, doesn’t
mean all lawyers and activists are corrupt. It means there are some tainted
eggs.
I’ve met and worked
with the best and brilliant of our policemen. We have brilliant lawyers among
them, medical doctors, PhD holders, trainers, researchers…
Have you ever wondered
why our policemen always topped their classes, whenever they go for
international training? Please chew on that.
Another major challenge
fueling corruption in the police is funding. That’s why I said we should stop
playing the ostrich, especially those reporting/covering security circles.
We know these issues. Don’t
pretend all is well. Till date, police units are not given money for
investigations. Do you know that statement sheets, maintenance of their police stations,
cells, departments and fueling of their patrol vehicles are done by them?
Just madness! Do you
seriously think that’s right? Don’t we know those to hold accountable?
Dismantling units is not going to make the problem disappear. It’s like
sweeping the dirt under the carpet, to gather more dirt.
You want a crop of policemen
to investigate kidnappings, terrorism, which entail travelling and transporting
to different states, lodging in hotels and eating, but no money is made available
for such? You want these selected policemen to use their meagre salaries for
such investigations, even though they may be killed? Haba, think am naaa.
Some people are in
Abuja, who ordinarily should be looking into these issues of funding in the
police, but they are not. They are busy sharing billions, marrying five wives,
sleeping during meetings, slapping women, having thousands of concubines, making
videos of their fleet of cars and doing other unmentionable things.
Do you know creation of
forensic laboratories in Nigeria and training of personnel to man them, will
check torture and arrest before investigation syndrome?
We can’t continue to
treat craw-craw, while ringworms are destroying us.
Yes, I’ve never
understood the need for STS, but I’m still solidly behind IRT. Definitely,
there are bad guys among them, but first ask yourself, “Is IRT really working?”
Weed out the corrupt
folks. People complained of SARS. But the police are making do with the personnel
they have. Yes, that’s why you find atrocities entering units. If police create
a new unit, it will poach personnel from SARS or other units. And these
personnel are not all corruption free.
It was a lawyer, Justus
Ijeoma and another friend of mine, working with Amnesty International that
first told me about a case that IRT handled in Imo State. It was a messy case.
In
the course of
writing that story, I tried to balance it. I reached out to the guy
heading
IRT, Abba Kyari. I will never forget his response. “Any of my men that
commits a crime, is on his own and he will go in for it.”
Have we exhausted that?
Making the person culpable to pay? Ijeoma
mentioned the names of policemen in his allegations. What has happened to them? Has
the police hierarchy bothered to invite Ijeoma to tell what went down? What he
discovered or to authenticate his allegations? No!
These ogas at the top
just read these things in the dailies and move on. They’re not doing anything
about a particular case and person mentioned, but they want to down the tool
working for them. Na dem sabi!
The police are underfunded and now that the IRT Units have become centralised in Abuja, who
the heck is going to bring money to send operatives to different states for
investigations? When they had offices, the cost was minimal because a state unit
focused on crime nearest home. Now, I don’t know.
There’s a case that has
been at Area M Command for five years without an arrest. I advised the lady in
question to go to IRT. They made an arrest within a week and the matter had a
closure. The victim was happy. Yes, there was a result.
Let’s think about
results before we start having orgasm over the disbanding of IRT. Do you know that the IRT Unit started
investigations on Evan without prompting, using their own money? Passion! This
followed reported cases of kidnappings at Festac axis. If the police want to
destroy what is working for it, na dem sabi. Wetin concerns me. Soldier go, soldier
come. But what legacy are you leaving behind?
Solomon Arase, well
done.
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