By Zik Gbemre
Without a doubt, there are many issues which have left us with a Police Force that is not functioning as they should, and which we believe the Inspector General of Police (IGP) should know, hence, the situation with FSARS/State Police Command SAARS are not the only problem facing the Nigerian Police Force at the moment. Indiscriminate arrests and detention of suspects without proper investigation and before charging them to Court is one area that needs to be addressed, especially as it pertains to arresting people with the intent to extort money from them. One is even forced to wonder if the recent raid/invasion of the Abuja house of Chief E. K. Clark, was carried out with this intent. And by the way, it is still a puzzle as to who actually gave the order for the said house invasion. Though, recent reports have shown that the IGP has approved the dismissal of the Three, out of the Four Officers allegedly involved in the unauthorized and illegal search of Chief E. K. Clark’s Asokoro house in Abuja. While there is need to investigate those behind this action and bring them to book, there is also need for those behind the order to be exposed and dealt with appropriately. But when we consider this issue intently, the truth is that those Police Officers who have been dismissed by the IGP have not committed any offence so to speak. They were simply acting on Orders from their superior Officers. We all know that in the Force, the Officers are trained to ‘obey the last Order’ from their superior/senior Officers, whether such Orders are wrong or not. Hence, the target here are those that approved and gave the Orders to the Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) and the Inspectors, to raid Chief E. K. Clark’s house. In other words, those who gave the Orders in the first place should be the one to be dismissed and not these Police Officers who were simply obeying the Orders/instructions of their superior Officers. If these Officers had refused to obey the said Orders, then it would have been mutiny. So, there is need to expose and punish those who gave the Orders in the first place.
That aside, it is not right that the Police Station Offices are being built by DPOs with the money extorted from the public. Same with maintaining the Police Stations and fueling/maintaining Police patrol vehicles. They should find out who funds the investigation of cases? Is it money provided by the police or money provided by suspects and complainants? How much is being given by the Police Authorities and the Federal Government to every Police Station across the country for their upkeep and daily logistics/maintenance? How does the Police Stations get money for their upkeep and taking care of the running costs of their Stations? How did the DPOs generate the money used to build new Office blocks and to furnish their offices? Who provides the money for all of this?
The simple answer is that they mostly depend on monies they take from complainants and suspects for the upkeep of their Police Stations. In other words, they depend on the money from the public to fund the daily logistics of the Police Stations. With this prevailing and acceptable situation, how would the Nigerian Police not continue to detain and arrest people indiscriminately, especially since funds are not provided for them?
The Nigerian Government must adequately fund the running cost of the operations of the Nigerian Police Force at all levels. It is appalling that majority of all the rank and file of Officers and men of the Nigerian Police Force are the ones who buy their own uniforms, boot shoes, belt, caps, etc., that is the reason why our Police Officers do not look the same in their uniform/kit attires because it is every-man-for-himself when it comes to what they wear. Apart from the complete uniforms provided to every Nigerian Police Officer when they are recruited into the Force, they are left to fend for their physical outlook in the years ahead. Therefore, what is meant to be a “uniform” is no longer a uniform for all police officers to ‘look alike’, because every officer is expected to provide their own uniforms and shoes as the years roll by. To address this, we have advised that every Nigerian Police Officer should be provided with two sets of complete uniforms and kits in a year.
We should not expect an effective Police Force when most Officers and men of the Force are not provided with money to carry out their duties, specifically funds for logistics to go and effect arrests. They source for money to do virtually everything? One begins to wonder if it is the responsibility of the Police Officers to buy their uniforms and build Offices for themselves with money taken/extorted from the public. When last did the Police authorities and the Federal Government built any Police Station with money from the official budgets of the Nigerian Police Force?
The relevant authorities of the NPF and the Federal Government should seriously improve on the funding of the nation’s Police, by providing adequate funds for their logistics and the upkeep of their operational costs, especially officers in all the Police Stations across the country. This funding should include logistics for the invitation and transportation for officers and suspects/complainants when investigating any case. Nigerian Police Officers should be able to do all of this without depending on complainants and suspects to foot their bills.
Come to think of it, what is the Government using all the money for Security Votes for? Are they not supposed to honestly and transparently use the Security Votes budget to fund all aspects of the Police operations across the country? Who buys the top-up phone recharge cards for the Police Officers during investigation? The Police Officers should not be expected to use their money or suspects/complainant’s money for recharge cards during investigations. It is the responsibility of the Government to stop avenues that would encourage the extortion of money from the public by the Police.
They should also instruct the Police Headquarters in Abuja and the AIG Zonal Offices to desist from hijacking (minor/civil) cases from the Divisional Police Stations and Area Commands. They could be directed to handle the cases brought to their attention well, but not to hijack such cases. The Offices of the Commissioners of Police, Zonal AIGs, and the Police Headquarters in Abuja, should concentrate on national security issues like kidnapping, terrorism, herdsmen killings and other violent crimes, and not to be involved in Community leadership tussles at the local levels. And they should not jump into the arrest of people without confirming their allegations through proper investigation before the arrest of suspects. All these indiscriminate arrests encourage extortion and corruption. Nobody would be happy to be locked up in Police Cells, especially when they have not really committed any offence. And the idea of fabricating offences on innocent people should be discouraged. They should be able to direct suspects to be released, without having to transport them to the Police Headquarters in Abuja or the AIG Zonal Offices because such expenses of logistics are always footed by the complainants and suspects. This creates room for such cases to be compromised by those concerned. All these are parts of what makes the Nigerian Police Force to be ineffective. It is not the responsibilities of the Investigating Police Officer (IPO), the complainants/suspects to foot bills for the operations of the Police. The Federal Government and relevant authorities of the Police Force should take full charge of all the funding of the Nigerian Police operations and not leave it for the Divisional Police Stations and Area Commands to foot such bills of operations. When last did the Police authorities and the Federal Government refurbish/renovate or expand the Offices and Accommodation in the various Police Stations at all levels across the country?
We also hear that top police, government and military officers are mandated to always go for long training courses to be trained in areas of good leadership, strategy and planning, etc. But the question is, how has these long training courses impacted on the performance of the top Police, military and government officials? If really these trainings produce good results, we believe that such results ought to have transformed the Nigerian Police Force because for an Officer to be promoted to the rank of Commissioner of Police (CP) or Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG), he/she must attend some of the said long courses. But all these trainings have not been seen to have improved the operations of the Police Force and Government officials. As far as we can tell, these courses have become more like a ‘ritual’ or ‘honorary ceremony’ to be mandatory performed by top officers but without any positive impact and improvement on the Force and governance. Yet, huge amount of public funds are spent on these long training courses that are yielding no results. Why can’t they channel the funds used to run these so-called training courses to fund the Nigerian Police Force operations?
The Federal Government should also ensure that whatever funds that are being given/budgeted for the upkeep of all the Police Stations in the country are used for the very purpose intended, and not ending up in the pockets of Senior Police Officers. We hear that the Federal Government actually allocate money for the provision of Police Uniforms, but yet, the rank and file of Police Officers still buy their own Uniforms, shoes, caps, etc. Voting money for the upkeep of the Police is one thing, but actually ensuring that the said money is used for the purpose intended is a different thing entirely. The Federal Government, The Nigerian Police Force (NPF) and all relevant authorities seriously need to monitor this for us to ensure that we have well-equipped and functional Police Force.
It is no news that criminals today have gone sophisticated and dynamic in perpetrating their crimes. The question is, what has the NPF (regarded as the nation’s security outfit saddled with the responsibility of keeping public order/preventing and solving crimes of diverse nature), done or is doing to meet-up with this sophistication of crime? What has the Nigerian Federal and State Governments, as custodians of the country’s resources; done or is doing in this regard, especially in taking good care of the ‘running cost/logistics’ and ‘basic requirements’ of the NPF to effectively carry out their functions?
For us to have a ‘crime-free’ society, there is need to appropriately fund the institution that is responsible for providing the security service in the first place. It is only when this is holistically sorted out, that we can now hold the men and officers of the NPF responsible for not doing their job efficiently or said to be corrupt.
Zik Gbemre, JP.
National Coordinator
Niger Delta Peace Coalition (NDPC
