CORRUPTION AND THE NIGERIAN POLICE
“The Nigerian police, the one and only police that do not seek to create order, but to preserve disorder” – Richard J. Daley.
According to Encarta dictionary, Corruption can be defined as the dishonest exploitation of power for personal gain. It has spread through the infrastructure of Nigeria so thoroughly that it can be likened to a virus; once miniscule but slowly, it has infected key regions in our society and become widespread among both normal citizens and authoritative personalities across the country. One of the places it is most prominent is none other than the country’s own “coveted” police force.
The Nigerian Police force is the principal law enforcement agency in the country, with over 300,000 members. It was established in 1930 to be a beacon of safety and security, but has instead come to be associated with corruption, mismanagement of power and human rights abuse.
Countless Nigerians attempting to make ends meet as they go about their daily lives are
accosted on a daily basis by police officers who attempt to, and often succeed in, extorting money from them. People from all walks of life: from shop keepers and market traders to lawyers and doctors on their way to work, are confronted by those same officers that are mandated to protect them, for bribes and face threats of violence or other human rights abuse if they fail to pay. Threats which are too often carried out.
This can all be attributed to the corruption present at the various levels of the police force. Senior police officers enforce a system of returns, in which officers are compelled to share their extorted money with the chain of command. Some even assign officers to specific locations with money quotas they are supposed to reach, unless they face the threat of demotion. This has led to the production of unofficial road checkpoints, coupled with their own “toll fees.”
An example is the case of a girl and her family on their way to back from school one day.
“My parents had just picked me up from school and we were on our way home. As usual, we met a ‘stop and search’ point along the way.” She said, showing how familiar she and most Nigerians are with such occurrences.
“The police officers told us to park by the roadside, and then one of them began to come towards the car. I think my parents live for this event because they are always prepared. Every single thing, down to the fire extinguisher is always with us. The unsuspecting officers began to ask them for their papers, particulars, driver’s license and the likes, looking for something to hold against them, but they couldn’t get anything. After realizing that my dad was fully armored with all the right documents, they got frustrated, but recovered quickly then switched to their next favorite tactic and dropped their famous catch phrase:
‘Anything for the boys, sir?’
“They got nothing at the end, and out of frustration, they told us to leave.”
That was an example of people well prepared to deal with the harassment of the police, but most are rarely ever so well armed; and even if they are, it sometimes will not help them. Here is a case of someone who has faced the full harassment of the police force.
A woman was once beaten and held at gunpoint by a police officer who had been trying to get his way with her but was denied. The lady tried reporting the incident but was shut down by the police. This was because; the police officer’s father is a retired Brigadier General. All attempts to bring the case to court yielded abortive. Every turn she took to bring the hands of justice into her case led her to a dead end.
Those in the police force charged with correction of oversights and enforcing discipline have neglected their duties for years, which in turn seemed to encourage a behavior in police officers that makes them perpetrate the very crimes they are employed to stop. In the shadows, even the high level officials of the police force embezzle staggering sums from the funds meant to cover basic police operations. This has greatly affected the quality of service received by those that are able to pay for police services.
Extortion, embezzlement and other corrupt practices by Nigeria’s police undermine the fundamental human rights in two key ways. Firstly, the human rights abuses that stem from the process of extorting money; these range from arbitrary arrest and unlawful, indefinite detention to threats, and acts, of physical and sexual assault, torture and extrajudicial killings.
Secondly, their general inability to perform many of their most basic functions, coupled with their financial crimes, serve to greatly undermine the rule of law. For example, police officers collect money to perform investigations on given criminal cases, thus rendering those unable to pay without access to justice. Criminal suspects can as well bribe the police to avoid arrest or prosecution, or to simply influence the outcome of an investigation in their favor, sometimes going so far as to turn the investigation against the victim.
There is another act police officers are famous for, which is known as Raiding. It involves them rounding up and detaining groups of citizens from public places such as restaurants, bars, bus stops and market places, and transporting them to the station, where they (the police officers) demand for money from them. An elderly man reported to the Human Rights Watch that, one day while peacefully sitting in a bar, drinking palm wine at around 7pm, some police officers came in their vehicle and arrested everyone at the bar, about 20 of them in total. They were taken to a police station and told that a building near them had been burglarized that day, so they were arresting them as suspects. They were forced to spend the night in a cell and the man’s son had to pay N5000 to bail him out the next day. He was released without having sign any paper work or perform any official documentation.
The poor, lower class citizens suffer more from the corrupt machinations of the police than most other Nigerians. The sums demanded from them usually take huge portions out of their income and Nigerians in general are unable to pay the bribes demanded for by the police; meaning most cannot afford police services.
Though the Nigerian government and police leadership have acknowledged and identified some of these problems, and made attempts to correct the issues, they have had little to no success. Various police reform initiatives have been launched but they have difficulty pinning down and holding accountable thos officers that are responsible. Simply put, the Nigerian government lacks the drive to follow through on police reform initiatives and implement a proper and effective police oversight and accountability system.
In the state Nigeria is currently in, only the rich and powerful can be truly safe from the corrupt body that is the Nigerian Police force. But even then, with this crazy system of police officers extorting money from the general public on a daily basis, and the lax stance those in charge of disciplining and reforming of those police officers have taken, can anyone truly be safe?
According to Encarta dictionary, Corruption can be defined as the dishonest exploitation of power for personal gain. It has spread through the infrastructure of Nigeria so thoroughly that it can be likened to a virus; once miniscule but slowly, it has infected key regions in our society and become widespread among both normal citizens and authoritative personalities across the country. One of the places it is most prominent is none other than the country’s own “coveted” police force.
Countless Nigerians attempting to make ends meet as they go about their daily lives are
accosted on a daily basis by police officers who attempt to, and often succeed in, extorting money from them. People from all walks of life: from shop keepers and market traders to lawyers and doctors on their way to work, are confronted by those same officers that are mandated to protect them, for bribes and face threats of violence or other human rights abuse if they fail to pay. Threats which are too often carried out.
This can all be attributed to the corruption present at the various levels of the police force. Senior police officers enforce a system of returns, in which officers are compelled to share their extorted money with the chain of command. Some even assign officers to specific locations with money quotas they are supposed to reach, unless they face the threat of demotion. This has led to the production of unofficial road checkpoints, coupled with their own “toll fees.”
An example is the case of a girl and her family on their way to back from school one day.
“My parents had just picked me up from school and we were on our way home. As usual, we met a ‘stop and search’ point along the way.” She said, showing how familiar she and most Nigerians are with such occurrences.
“The police officers told us to park by the roadside, and then one of them began to come towards the car. I think my parents live for this event because they are always prepared. Every single thing, down to the fire extinguisher is always with us. The unsuspecting officers began to ask them for their papers, particulars, driver’s license and the likes, looking for something to hold against them, but they couldn’t get anything. After realizing that my dad was fully armored with all the right documents, they got frustrated, but recovered quickly then switched to their next favorite tactic and dropped their famous catch phrase:
‘Anything for the boys, sir?’
“They got nothing at the end, and out of frustration, they told us to leave.”
That was an example of people well prepared to deal with the harassment of the police, but most are rarely ever so well armed; and even if they are, it sometimes will not help them. Here is a case of someone who has faced the full harassment of the police force.
A woman was once beaten and held at gunpoint by a police officer who had been trying to get his way with her but was denied. The lady tried reporting the incident but was shut down by the police. This was because; the police officer’s father is a retired Brigadier General. All attempts to bring the case to court yielded abortive. Every turn she took to bring the hands of justice into her case led her to a dead end.
Those in the police force charged with correction of oversights and enforcing discipline have neglected their duties for years, which in turn seemed to encourage a behavior in police officers that makes them perpetrate the very crimes they are employed to stop. In the shadows, even the high level officials of the police force embezzle staggering sums from the funds meant to cover basic police operations. This has greatly affected the quality of service received by those that are able to pay for police services.
Extortion, embezzlement and other corrupt practices by Nigeria’s police undermine the fundamental human rights in two key ways. Firstly, the human rights abuses that stem from the process of extorting money; these range from arbitrary arrest and unlawful, indefinite detention to threats, and acts, of physical and sexual assault, torture and extrajudicial killings.
Secondly, their general inability to perform many of their most basic functions, coupled with their financial crimes, serve to greatly undermine the rule of law. For example, police officers collect money to perform investigations on given criminal cases, thus rendering those unable to pay without access to justice. Criminal suspects can as well bribe the police to avoid arrest or prosecution, or to simply influence the outcome of an investigation in their favor, sometimes going so far as to turn the investigation against the victim.
There is another act police officers are famous for, which is known as Raiding. It involves them rounding up and detaining groups of citizens from public places such as restaurants, bars, bus stops and market places, and transporting them to the station, where they (the police officers) demand for money from them. An elderly man reported to the Human Rights Watch that, one day while peacefully sitting in a bar, drinking palm wine at around 7pm, some police officers came in their vehicle and arrested everyone at the bar, about 20 of them in total. They were taken to a police station and told that a building near them had been burglarized that day, so they were arresting them as suspects. They were forced to spend the night in a cell and the man’s son had to pay N5000 to bail him out the next day. He was released without having sign any paper work or perform any official documentation.
The poor, lower class citizens suffer more from the corrupt machinations of the police than most other Nigerians. The sums demanded from them usually take huge portions out of their income and Nigerians in general are unable to pay the bribes demanded for by the police; meaning most cannot afford police services.
Though the Nigerian government and police leadership have acknowledged and identified some of these problems, and made attempts to correct the issues, they have had little to no success. Various police reform initiatives have been launched but they have difficulty pinning down and holding accountable thos officers that are responsible. Simply put, the Nigerian government lacks the drive to follow through on police reform initiatives and implement a proper and effective police oversight and accountability system.
In the state Nigeria is currently in, only the rich and powerful can be truly safe from the corrupt body that is the Nigerian Police force. But even then, with this crazy system of police officers extorting money from the general public on a daily basis, and the lax stance those in charge of disciplining and reforming of those police officers have taken, can anyone truly be safe?
https://www.hrw.org/report/2010/08/17/everyones-game/corruption-and-human-rights-abuses-nigeria-police-force
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