The Nigerian Police. A personal Experience.
I am of the opinion that this country can change, there are actually a larger number of good eggs, but as it always typically is, one bad egg can really make a mess of so many good eggs. The essence of this write up is not to criticize the Nigerian Police, but to commend them so far, identify their loopholes and proffer realistic and administrable solutions.
I was sitting at a bar, in Kubwa, Abuja. On the “5th of June” at about “9pm”, round table, 3 other friends all male like me, having a swell evening just to unwind from the day’s activities. We were barely there 20minutes when 3 police vans pulled up, about 30 or more armed police men jumped down, all armed with guns corked and pointing at everyone,…..”if you dare move, we shoot” was the exact phrase that sent chills through my spine. It all looked like a film trick so I told my friends, relax maybe they came to survey the area or pick up a suspect, but to my greatest bewilderment and also to cut d long story short, 6 minutes later we were all sitting behind the police van, after a couple of people had received varying ranges of slaps for protesting or trying to whip out their phones wittily. I sat there quietly, in my usual self, thinking of the next move to make…..”should I jump out and risk the best possible scenario of breaking my leg? Or demand to be dropped off immediately if my crime was not read out to me and risk one of those life changing slaps? Or start beating up one of the officers sitting beside me to cause some pandemonium, I didn’t even want to think of the risk involved from doing that?.....good thing it all ended up as just thoughts. Few minutes later, we were alighting from the vans; we had arrived at the police station. As I came down from the van, all that went through my mind was how can 3 accountants, myself and my friends, of our status can be ridiculed like this. I vowed, as far as this people don’t shoot me and kill me here, I must see the end of this nonsense. I looked round and all I saw was humbled men alighting police vans like criminals, all responsible looking, I wondered how many doctors and engineers were among us, roughly 20 of us.
From all i gathered, they do these routine pickups whenever they are cash strapped just to raise money, which is totally wrong and an outright abuse of citizens fundamental human rights. Anyway, my one hour stay in that hell hole was the highlight of it all. No matter how much I emphasize on it or how vividly I explain it, even if I bring Soyinka to grammatically construct it to paint to you a crystal clear picture, it would still not be enough to tell you the mess of the Police system. Now five minutes sitting behind the counter, I had already thought of who best to call. There were a lot of senior officers I happen to know, but then I remembered I had a Police Distress Number for Abuja residents that I immediately called. This brings you to the part that convinced me that there a still good eggs in the system. The number rang a couple of times and someone picked, and in hush tones I explained everything to him, he took down my name and location of the station. Believe you me, 15 minutes later the DPO barged in obviously sweating but with no sweat on his face. He immediately demanded to see me. I knew something was wrong because walking to his office all the officers I passed looked like Roths that were restrained by their leash from biting me. “Who the hell are you? Why did you call that number? Do you know the trouble you have put us in?” Those were the questions that barraged me as I walked through the DPOs door. I could only smile in my mind as I heard this, wondering which one he wants me to answer first.
So many other mind blowing things took place, like how they wanted to put us in cells that night, the occupants were literally jumping, you know with deep voices “come inside make we welcome una”, all these things you see in movies we all ran away from the door, opting to sleep on the passage, still thankful to them for that “privilege”. I can’t put down some other things for security reasons. But as I walked out the station at about 1am, with my phones still in their custody, confiscated, I could only think of the others left back in the cell because I was the only one allowed to leave and my phones were collected so I couldn’t call back the distress number immediately, I thought of human beings who had committed no offense what so ever, would be sleeping on dirty floors, exposed to all manner of dangers, with the possibility of a crime you did not commit tagged on you the following morning, among so many other terrifying thoughts. Thankfully I did all in my power to make sure all the others were released the following day, at a really great cost, almost my life.
But the essence of this write up like I said, is not to condemn the police, because they have been condemned right from time and condemnation hasn’t brought about any significant difference. I commend the operators of the Police Service Distress Number for doing their job. If everybody did his job, if the right allocations from the budget are passed down accordingly and no “oga” is sitting on funds, if there is proper checks and balances, then there would be no shortage of fuel in police cars, forcing them to resort to all sort of means to buy fuel, there would be no collecting of N20 N20 on the streets, ultimately the force would be more respectable and respected.
This is the number, for Abuja residents 07057337653 or 08028940883, you never know when you may need it. I don’t know for other states. But those who know should please drop it here. Thank you.
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