OLUFAMOUS – In this follow-up report to:
“DPOs’ confessions: We run police stations on bribes and charity” and “No computers, no uniforms: Sorry state of Nigeria Police,” Punch’s Temitayo Famutimi captures the sorry state of police barracks in Lagos.



"...
“The soak away recently got filled up and we had to contribute N4,000 each to get it fixed. Even the toilet we are talking about, there is nothing to write home about it. About 10 of us from three apartments make use of that dilapidated toilet and only one bathroom is usable on this floor and tens of people make use of it.

“This barracks can at best be described as a refugee camp as it is simply an eyesore and yet rent is being deducted in my salaries monthly.”

From meagre allocations that put police stations across the country at the mercy of charity from communities and criminals, the appalling dwelling places of policemen adds up to the several factors which make the Nigeria Police Force one of the most uninspiring institutions to work for many people.

From Obalende, Surulere, Iponri, Bar Beach to Women’s Police barracks, all in Lagos the story is that of a sad tale of utter neglect. But the picture is similar in other states of the federation. While the sewage pipes in many of the barracks visited are damaged, their rooftops bristling with satellite dishes were adorned with largely broken, sagging roofing sheets – many of which have indeed fallen off.
..."

"...
“During the rainy season, this whole place leading up to my apartment is always waterlogged and to add salt to injury, the human faeces in the broken sewage adds to the stagnant water around and pollutes the whole environment. This has been the trend for the three years I have been leaving here as no renovation has taken place. My children and wife stay in Ibadan where I got them a decent accommodation. To be realistic, it is not easy staying away from one’s family but this environment is not good enough. My children are still young and any of these structures around are hanging precariously and could fall on them,” he adds.
..."

"...
Senior officers embrace self help
But just as the rank and file of the police lament the state of the barracks, those in the officer cadre are not left out in the sad tale of neglect of their housing units. At the Ikeja GRA Police Officers’ Quarters occupied by those in the rank of Assistant Superintendent of Police up to those in the Deputy Commissioner of Police cadre, it was gathered that residents have been forced to self help to make their apartments and indeed the environment habitable.

A deputy superintendent of police who resides in the quarters explains that their various apartments appear to be in a fair state compared to other barracks because of the huge sums of money they expend on general maintenance.
..."

"...
Endangered psychology
A clinical psychologist at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja, Leonard Okonkwo, says the poor state of the barracks may account for one of the several factors causing the “not-too-pleasant behaviour of many policemen in the country.”

...shelter is one of the basic physiological needs of humans...there is a correlation between shelter and performance.

“Okonkwo explains that toying with the adequate shelter of those saddled with the responsibility of internal security of the country will only breed a police force populated with “disorganised and disorderly thinking” officers and men.

He adds, “If a man is not well sheltered he is not well motivated as shelter is a symbol of safety. When a policeman goes out to work, he should come back to the safety and comfort of his house. But in a situation where the barracks is not in a good shape, the policeman’s performance is affected.

“The policeman is always thinking about his or her welfare....taking proper care of barracks improves the ego of the policeman as they are proud of their job, thereby ultimately boosting their performance.”
“Until our policemen and women are well taken care of in terms of the provision of decent shelter, Nigerians are not likely to get the best from them."

..."

Ikeja Police Barracks: Shame Of A Nation

The sorry state of police barracks all over the nation, especially Ikeja Police Barracks located around the Ikeja axis of the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway should be a matter of concern to all Nigerians, considering that these are men and women who are supposed to help maintain law and order in the society.



When P.M.NEWS Metro visited the barracks recently, most of the buildings were in a decrepit state. The roofs of some of the buildings are weak and sagging, the windows and doors of most of the buildings have been damaged, some buildings have no roofs at all, while some of the residents use mats to cover their windows.

An Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) who pleaded anonymity, told P.M.NEWS Metro that: “Since the buildings have fallen into disrepair, things have been difficult for me and my colleagues, as we have no hope that something would be done soon.

“Here in the barracks, if we think we have security, it is a pure lie, because when you are sleeping in a place that has no windows and doors, automatically, our lives are not safe because we can’t sleep with our two eyes closed.

“When we are talking about the shape of the Senior Officers’ Blocks which are called SPOs, what would you say about the buildings that house the rank and file? Most of the buildings are beyond renovation so the authorities have to pull them down and re-construct them one after the other.

“Our own situation is still better but to talk of the rank and file, how much is their salary? If we (officers) are tired of staying in the barracks, we can afford to rent an apartment outside, but the rank and file cannot. How much do they earn that they would rent an ordinary room outside?



...
“In the barracks, our environment is very dirty, our soakaway and septic tanks are open, you can see faeces and urine all around. Also, the residential blocks in Highway Ikeja Police Barracks have gone beyond repair. To say the truth, this barracks is not a good place to live if you don’t want to die early. You can imagine, most of the blocks are already collapsing.



“And we say we have a government. To be sincere, what is killing us in Nigeria is insecurity. Another thing is that the police are not permitted to speak with the press, because nobody would like to lose his or her job.

“You can imagine, in our barracks, we don’t have any gutters to channel water into the drainage system.”
Another officer who spoke to our reporters said: “Life is difficult for some officers like us in the barracks because we don’t have freedom of information. The day you open your mouth to speak to the press, you should be prepared to lose your job. The only day you are allowed to speak to newsmen is when you have retired from the force.

“...We that live inside the barracks are not finding it easy at all, because the Nigeria Police Force is removing housing allowance from my salary, yet we live in a very poor environment.

“We are not happy staying in the barracks, though it has its merits, especially as regards quick response to urgent assignments; and also, you can be posted to any division where you are to resume work by 7am. If you reside in Ikeja and you are to resume work in Obalende, you have to move to the barracks to enable you meet up with the time. If not for these, what am I doing in the barracks? Most barracks are not good for human habitation. Look at the blocks, they are all gone. At any time, the whole building may collapse, because any time we may have heavy rainfall.

“It is when the buildings collapse that we will complain. Now eye service has killed many of us, because you don’t know who is watching you until they report to the Commissioner of Police that you were the one that spoke with newsmen. That is why we have to watch what we say.”

The wife of a police officer, who also refused to mention her name for obvious reasons, told P.M.NEWS Metro, “there is no police officer’s wife who is not engaged in one trade or another, after our husbands go to work in the morning. We also do our business and sometimes we close very late.

“When are we going to have time for ourselves and our children? Before now, if my husband closes, he would come to my shop and eat, but now the wife to the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mrs. Umar Manko, has mandated that we should be closing as early as 7pm instead of 10pm. Now, I cannot take care of my husband, sometimes when my husband returns, he sleeps hungry, which I don’t like.

“The housing issue is there, look at our buildings as they are collapsing and the Lagos State Police Command is not doing anything about it. Do we wait until the building collapses and we all die in the rubble? That is when they would start thinking about renovating the buildings.

“I am using this medium to call on the police boss, Inspector General of Police, Mr. Mohammed Abubakar to please solve our problems here in the barracks.”

Another junior officer told P.M.NEWS Metro that “the way the Nigeria Police Force is treating us in this barracks is bad, because most of these blocks are leaking. Any time it rains, we are in trouble. During the last heavy rains, almost all my electronic gadgets were damaged by the rain, including my mattress. You can imagine what we are experiencing here, living under leaking roofs.

“This has been one of my challenges, because each time rain falls, I must put buckets all around the rooms. The worst part is that though the police authorities see all these, they are not making any effort to remedy the situation. They are endangering the lives of junior officers in the barracks. Our building is the worst.

“In fact, I regret joining the Nigeria Police Force, because after serving them for 35 years, your retirement money will not be paid on time; moreover, if one eventually dies in service, we were told that the sum of N500,000 would be given to our family, but with those that I have witnessed none has been given a dime. Instead, they would go to television, radio stations and newspapers that they have paid them,” he lamented.


Source: PM NEWS

teemanbastos:
More reason why APC needs to come on board.
1. to improve welfare of Policeman and security agencies.
2. To provide employments and good jobs for youths so they wunt engage in robbery and social vices.

sylve11:


To read, na 1 thing. To understand, na anoda thing. To comment, na something else.

Janeify:

Meaning?

sylve11:


Swerve.

Janeify:
lol...na you sabi between, return that spec to the owner