IG: Police deep in corruption

[DT]

. Checkpoints, police stations are bribe collection points

. Anti-robbery squads are killer teams

The Acting Inspector General of Police yesterday said the image of the force has degenerated to the nadir as policemen revel in corruption and their stations and checkpoints turned into bribery collection points. Mohammed Dahiru Abubakar said also the police special anti-robbery squads have become killer teams engaging in routine extra-judicial killings.

"(The) Police Force has fallen to its lowest level...Police duties have become commercialised and provided at the whims and caprices of the highest bidder," he said while addressing assistant police commissioners in charge of command operations and criminal investigation departments at a conference in Abuja.

The police chief's frank statements about the force are a common knowledge among Nigerians but officials rarely admit such things.

Abubakar, who took charge of the police last month, pledged radical measures to tackle what he called unprofessional conduct of men and officers.

"Our police stations, state CID and Ops offices have become business centers and collection points for rendering returns from all kinds of squads and teams set up for the benefit of superior officers," the acting IG said.

"Our Special Anti-Robbery Squads (SARS) have become killer teams engaging in deals for land speculators and debt collection. Toll stations in the name of check-points adorn our highways with policemen shamefully collecting money from motorists in full glare of the public."

Abubakar said police connive with suspects to turn against complainants, and that investigations are usually not conducted unless those involved pay money to the police.

"Justice has been perverted, peoples' rights denied, innocent souls committed to prison, torture and extra-judicial killings perpetrated and so many people arbitrarily detained in our cells because they cannot afford the illegal bail monies we demand," he said.

"Illegalities thrive under your watchful eyes because you have compromised the very soul of our profession. Our respect is gone and the Nigerian public has lost even the slightest confidence in the ability of the police to do any good thing.

"That is how bad it has become and that is why we shall be adopting a very radical approach in the course of running (this) administration.

"We must purge the system of corruption which cripples and frustrates every honest effort at reforming the police as exemplified in the total failure of the multiple efforts of government at reforming the Nigeria Police Force."

Abubakar said he understood the logistics and welfare problems facing the police but added that "these problems cannot justify nor serve as excuses for the myriad uncouth and unprofessional conduct of police officers and men across the country."

He said far-reaching measures would be adopted to redeem the force such that it would serve the public properly.

Abubakar ordered immediate release of all people detained by the police illegally and the dismantling of all road blocks.

"You must ensure the immediate release of all persons detained in police cells without lawful justification and non-detention of persons beyond the stipulated period of 24 hours except as otherwise permitted by law," he said

He also ordered immediate disbandment of "all squads, teams or any other operational or investigative outfits operating under whatever name and collapsing such under the original structures recognised by police standards."

Also, Abubakar instructed for "immediate dismantling of all intra-state and highway road blocks which constitute nuisance especially in Lagos, Edo and south-eastern states."

The inspector general also ordered the recall of police guards for individuals and corporate bodies. The guards included those given by the Special Protection Units (SPU), the Mobile Police Force (MPF) and conventional policemen.

He warned that the force would no longer "tolerate indiscipline, indolence, corruption, inefficiency and all the negative tendencies that have brought so much disgrace to the force."

"We must rid our communities of crimes of all tendencies and as a force, we must step up our actions from being reactionary to being proactive while evolving strategies that prevent crimes through community service," he said.



DailyTrust