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.
Written by Emmanuel Onwubiko, head of Human Rights
Writers Association of Nigeria
January 09, 2015
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