In case you haven't read the allegation made by a membership group
in which I am seriously involved with in the last decade that the Nigerian
Police Force in Anambra state command specifically charges a variety of
service charges from family members of victims of armed kidnappings, then I
will extend you the privilege of reading that public statement in full.
It goes thus: A Democracy Inclined Non-Governmental
Organization-HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA [HURIWA] has urged the
Presidency and the National Security Adviser to the President Colonel Sambo
Dasuki [rtd] to launch a transparent and comprehensive investigation of the
groundswell of allegations that the police establishment in Anambra State may
have some form of partnership with some hardened kidnappers going by the
widespread allegations that the Anambra State Command of the Nigerian Police
Force charges between N500,000 and N1million from family members of victims of
armed kidnappings for the purposes of rescuing them even after payment of
ransoms to the violent gangs.
HURIWA said the solution to kidnappings will squarely be
actualised if and only if the crime is made less profitable to both the evil
practitioners of violent criminal kidnappings and the rogue elements within the
security establishment especially the Nigerian Police Force who capitalise on
the hysteria and apprehension of the family members of kidnapped persons to extort
huge payments under different illegal guises.
The Rights group has also carpeted the National Assembly for
abysmally failing to institutionalise state and local policing institutions
through the soon-to-be completed constitutional amendment process just
as HURIWA said the failure of the legislature at the national and
sub-national level to pass the relevant amendment clauses in the extant
constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria which would have necessitated
the establishment of state police to compliment the federal policing
institutions means that Nigeria as a corporate entity is not desirous to
resolve the growing threats to the territorial integrity of the nation
posed by insecurity and armed groups of all affiliations.
HURIWA said it was compelled to alert President Good luck Jonathan
about the malpractices going on within the policing institution in Southern
Nigeria with specific reference to the widening frontiers of armed
kidnappings especially in the South Eastern state of Anambra which has defied
all effort by the current Anambra state government to contain the menace
including the demolition of housing assets owned by suspected kidnappers
resident in Anambra state by the deluge of calls it gets from members of the
public. HURIWA wants President Jonathan to sanitize the Nigerian Police force
and eradicate all rogue elements that have infiltrated the institution and
President would be ensured that posterity would eternally remain
appreciative of this legacy of his presidency if achieved.
Condemning as outrageous, criminal and deceitful the alleged
demand and receipts of handsome anti-kidnappings 'service charges' by the
Anambra state police command the Rights group said the fact that the Nigerian
Police makes huge profits from the misfortunes of families of kidnapped persons
would make the evil practice of armed kidnappings difficult if not impossible
to frontally challenged and crushed decisively.
HURIWA in a statement signed jointly by the National Coordinator
Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko and the National Media Affairs Director Miss Zainab
Yusuf advised the Federal Government and the relevant state governments in the
South East to conduct a discreet investigation to ascertain the veracity or
otherwise of these disturbing allegations which if unchecked could compound
the phenomenon of armed kidnappings of Nigerians by suspected hoodlums who
allegedly conspire with some rogue elements in the security community to
perpetrate these heinous crimes against humanity.
''The Nigerian Government and the relevant state governments in
the South whereby these kidnappings have remained unresolved and unchecked
should conduct independent investigation by asking some family members [in
cameral to avoid recrimination by armed police and their associates in the
underworld] of the victims of this dastardly crime of kidnappings to ascertain
the veracity or otherwise of the claims that they usually come under intense
pressure by the security operatives to part with their hard earned money to
enable these police and other security agents to launch manhunt for these
kidnappers. We have been inundated by many callers who have complained that
they were made to cough out huge payments to the police commands especially
that of Anambra state ranging from N500,000 to N1 million. These payments are
never receipted because they are illegal and these incentives are what
motivates these crimes of kidnappings to continue since the men and officers of
the Nigerian Police allegedly benefit from the misfortunes of kidnapped
Nigerians. The Nigerian state must restore strict discipline within the ranks
and file as the most strategic way of ending the persistent cases of
kidnappings. President Jonathan should please help Nigerians to end this
debilitating and vicious crime that has cost many lives and precious wealth of
law abiding Nigerians.''
Many national newspapers gave generous coverage to this allegation
which came from numerous sources of the very people involved but who preferred
anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the matter and because of the
peculiar situation that Nigeria is in right now whereby any genuine effort to
make changes in the society is resisted violently. Incidentally in one of the
editions that ran this allegation the Nigerian Police Force through the
spokesman responded to this allegation and as usual denied knowledge of this
scenario and demanded from us evidence before the hierarchy of the Nigerian
Police can act upon it. The issue in focus is not that our organization called
on the police hierarchy to initiate investigation r to use internal mechanisms
to stop this practice of extorting money from family members of victims of
armed kidnappings because in that very public statement we made it clear that
we are calling on President Good luck Jonathan through the office of the
national security adviser to do thorough and an independent investigation into
these range of allegations and to restore discipline in the ranks and file of
the Nigerian Police Force.
Sadly, the Nigerian Police Force seems comfortably ensconced in
the muddy waters of scandals for many years and decades and unfortunately each
time a new person is appointed to head this decadent policing institution the
hopes that the history of indiscipline and spectacular absence of professionalism
fades with each passing day because the new Inspector General of Police will
first and foremost follow the bureaucratic steps of paying courtesy visits to
state commands and usually show more interest in ingratiating himself with the
political class rather than concentrate on introducing a set of
revolutionary changes that will reshape the public face of this institution
that over the years has become the public face of corruption and bribery.
Most Nigerians are already aware of the notorious fact that the
Nigerian Police as an institution is not to be trusted to comprehensively
tackle the challenges of indiscipline that has afflicted the ranks and file and
even the top echelon of the force over the several years of its
existence. Take a walk across your street and ask just any adult about
the level of confidence and trust he/she has in the institution of the Nigerian
Police Force and I can assure you that out of every ten persons you may run into
not even a person will tell you that he/she has unimpeded trust and confidence
in the Nigerian Police Force. The job before the new management of the police
are enormous but the most strategic is to restore service discipline because
there is a deep rooted stench of gross indiscipline amongst the ranks and file
and even the management of the Nigerian Police. Way back in Lagos there was
this particular incident of crime that occurred somewhere around Mafoluku
whereby a victim of armed robbery operation was reportedly amputated by the
criminals because he couldn't afford to give them any valuable item because in
his own words all fingers are not equal and when a neighbour alerted a near by
police station those robbers walked straight to the neighbour and challenged
him to put another call across to the police.
This allegation of demand and receipt of service charges by police
for going after alleged armed kidnappers must be probed and the political and
business establishments in the South East must take it upon themselves to root
out this evil practice by the police because if kidnappings are not rooted
out then business environment will be brutally risky and the situation of gross
underdevelopment afflicting the South East will continue. The Police Service
Commission must be professionalised because for now the Chairman and
commissioners heading that establishment haven't played good enough role to
check the widening corruption and lack of discipline that has become the part
and parcel of the Nigerian Police Force. Mike Okiro who heads the Police
service commission should play less of partisan politics with his valuable time
and devote much of these times changing the face of the Nigerian Police which
he was privileged to have served and retired as the Inspector General of
Police.
+Emmanuel Onwubiko is head of Human Rights Writers
Association of Nigeria and blogs @www.huriwa.blogspot.com; www.rightsassociationngr.com, www.huriwa.org.
9/1/2015
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