April 20, (THEWILL) — The news media have been awash lately with reports indicating increasing involvement of law enforcement agents in crime, especially extortion and armed robbery. Many Nigerians have not forgotten the Anti-SARS protests, an event that saw the youth come together for the first time in the history of the country to protest police brutality and persistent harassment across the country.
Indeed, memories of the final outcome of the protests, the mass shooting of the protesters at the Lekki Toll Gate by security personnel obeying orders ‘from above’ will linger for a long time. Yet it seems that the same factors that ignited the Anti-SARS episode are back. Evidently in dire need of reorientation, Police operatives, according to reports, have started conducting themselves in a manner that is clearly reminiscent of the era preceding the Anti-SARS riots, extorting and harassing innocent and law-abiding Nigerians.
Fortunately, their bosses are watching and noting this wayward trend in their behaviour and as expected, dishing out a deserving punishment.
As a deterrent to others, about five officers of the Edo State Police Command were relieved of their duties following complaints by members of the public over allegations of harassment, abduction and extortion.
Apparently the police had uncovered a syndicate operating within the state. This was disclosed in a press statement by the command’s Police Public Relations Officer, Eno Ikoedem, who said the syndicate comprised 10 members, including dismissed police officers, POS operators and bus drivers.
The statement described the development as a major breakthrough in the fight against criminal elements disguising as law enforcement officers to perpetrate heinous crimes within Benin City and its environs.
It noted that the Edo State Police command had, in recent times, received several complaints from members of the public alleging harassment, abduction and extortion by individuals posing as police officers.
These suspects stop unsuspecting citizens, forcefully convey them around various parts of Benin City and eventually take them to POS operators to fraudulently extort money from them under duress.
THEWILL gathered that the Commissioner of Police, Monday Agbonika, who was disturbed by the allegations, ordered a discreet, intelligence-driven investigation into the matter. Through sustained surveillance, technical intelligence and coordinated operations by operatives of the command, the syndicate was successfully busted.
Preliminary investigation had revealed that the syndicate was well organised and responsible for a series of crimes, including abduction and extortion of innocent citizens. The members, it was discovered, exploited police equipment to deceive victims and carried out their operations with impunity, bringing the Nigeria Police Force into disrepute.
In another development, the Delta State Commissioner of Police, Yemi Oyeniyi, has ordered the summary trial of two police officers captured on video allegedly extorting a member of the public inside the C Division police station in Asaba, the state capital. Both officers were ordered to face an orderly trial on Thursday.
The directive followed the viral spread of a secret recording showing a uniformed officer standing beside a man as he completed a forced transfer of N51,500 through a point-of-sale terminal inside the station.
Also, in Niger State, a Police inspector, Jido Ahmed, in the company of another man, allegedly shot and killed a fuel attendant, Jibrin Inuwa, for resisting robbery.
The incident happened on Wednesday in Kontagora Local Government Area of the state when the two robbers rode into a fuel station on a motorcycle without any mask. They initially posed as customers and even purchased fuel.
An eyewitness accounts claimed that when the robbers came into the fuel station, one of them was wearing a Mobile Police uniform, while posing as customers until they brought out their guns.
The witnesses reportedly said the robbers pulled out guns and threatened to shoot everybody at the filling station if the fuel attendant failed to cooperate. While the attendant hesitated to give them money, one of the robbers shot him in the chest and he fell down. They took some money before fleeing.
The robbers ran into a patrol team and there was a fire fight, which eventually resulted in the capture of Jido Ahmed and the discovery of his identity.
With this kind of background, it will be difficult for law-abiding citizens to continue to trust and repose confidence in the Nigeria Police Force or other law enforcement agencies. We believe that the sole duty of the Police should be to maintain law and order, fight crime in totality and to protect the average citizen from undue aggression, not to indulge in activities that mock the essence of peaceful living and healthy co-existence amongst Nigerians.
