The usual refrain by the police to the citizens is that police are their friends. But in reality, this has been found to be far from the truth. The police, if anything, have been proving to be enemies to the people they are supposed to be protecting and enjoying their confidence.
On the roads, the police will almost run civilians off the road any time they pass. Those who do not clear from their path quickly enough are often threatened with whips. Even in traffic jams what the police do is only to ensure that their vehicles pass, rather than stay to help control traffic. Police attached to politicians also do this. Once their principal is able to pass, their duty has ended and the civilians trapped in traffic are left to their devices.
Also when the police need some change in their pockets, they mount road blocks in streets and extort money from motorists. Those who do not cooperate are slammed with trumped up charges and threatened with taking them to the station. Arguments arising from such situations have often led to civilians being killed by the policemen in what they cover up as accidental discharges.
These road blocks are still being mounted despite many assurances in the past by the police high command about their being prohibited. We are however aware that the money extorted from motorists are given to the officers in the office daily, who now share and give some to those who brought the money. This explains why the police brazenly extort money from people on the roads.
The situation on both sides of the express at Amawbia is much the same. Because the police there are interested in extorting money from motorists, they do not care if traffic jams occur.
These actions by the police are reprehensible and opprobrious. Sometimes it seems those police officers derive sadistic pleasure from making people line up in traffic. Nothing can be this bad.
Because of their preoccupation with collecting money from road users, they often don’t notice criminals pass and this is also why the police officers are killed by gunmen who always take them unawares. To say that the Nigeria Police is run unprofessionally is to state the obvious.
Also when people file reports with the police, it often becomes an avenue for the police to further extort money from those people under the guise of using it to track the suspects or to fuel their vehicles. More often than not, the money being asked for by the police is often more than the cost of what has been reported stolen and this is why many are now reluctant to go to the police.
While there are conscientious police officers, the activities of the bad ones tend to obliterate their efforts and this can be frustrating.
We call on the Inspector General of Police to arrest this ugly trend and restore the confidence of the public in the force. Those who are supposed to protect the people cannot be their enemy.
While we demand professionalism from the police, we also urge the Federal Government to improve their welfare as it is also known that this prompts the rank and file of the police to take to shady practices. They cannot be risking their lives for peanuts even though their bad actions are inexcusable.
