By Shamsiyya Muhammad Umar
The denunciation of police is almost becoming a consensus to people in Nigeria considering the fact that they are the government security agency that is most closer to the people and an adage says familiarity breeds contempt.
By definition, police is a body of people employed and deployed by state to keep public order, to prevent and solve crime and to ensure governmental statutes and orders are obeyed. In real sense, the police should comprise people that have the finesse and training to handle all people sleeping in the society. But due to their unprofessional conduct, they are are mostly involved in cases of murder, torture, manslaughter and other forms of inhumane treatment meted on civilians.
They said “police is your friend” but that slogan mostly turns out to be a mirage. Some of the police officers are just always willing to arrest people in order to swindle them and sometimes innocent civilians end up in a pigsty cell for virtually doing nothing wrong.
The police officers specially employ agent Provocateurs in order to entice people to break the law so that they could make an arrest and they end up sharing the proceeds of the so-called bail with those agent Provocateurs.
The rapport that needs to be established between police and civilians appears not to be forthcoming. A friend was arrested at Bakin Kura Street in Bauchi sometime in December 2020 for staying longer than 12:00am outside, with no incriminating material in his possession, but was detained in a highly pigsty cell in the township police station, opposite Central Market Bauchi. He spent the night in the cell without allowing him to perform his daily obligatory prayers. At the end, an exhorbitant fee had to be paid for bail despite the law that says “Bail is Free”. They also cut off his hair, as if it’s a crime to choose a heir style in Nigeria. I don’t know whether any law give the police the mandate to cut people’s hair by force.
It is now a figment in Nigeria when they say that “bail is free”. Even though a friend who is an aspiring Barrister told me that the money collected for the bail is usually used for maintenance of the cells and toilets. But why then would it be exhorbitant and uniformlessly paid. Whenever a person come to bail his relative or friend, a bargain ensued about the bailing price to confirm the assertion that it’s a scam.
Police brutality and corruption is as plain as a pikestaff and it needs to be curtailed as soon as possible for peace to maintain in the society.
Police are surely pivotal in the provision of public peace and defence of public interests. The pitched battle that took place in Nigeria due to the “End SARS” is highly uncalled for and condemnable but it’s not unconnected to the police’s brutality and corruption.
This protests has caused destruction of lives and properties to the tune of billions of Naira thereby ridiculing the works of the police. Their main objective is to protect lives and properties and per se their inactions has led to the destruction of lives and properties.
Proper measures and guidelines need to be taken in order to establish amity between the police and civilians.The racketeers and trigger-happy officers needs to be fished out and expelled.
If the police treat people gently and kindly there would surely be the desired rapport between them and civilians and thus can make people report crimes , thereby effectively and efficiently maintaining public peace and order.
The inhumane treatment meted to civilians in the police stations and cells need to be curtailed.The cells need not to be pigsty, it should be clean with proper ventilation because some people arrested by the police were not actually criminals but arrested due to circumstance beyond their control and so every detainee should be treated humanely and this would surely leads to good rapport between police and civilians.
Alas! To get rid of such bitter narrations in our societies and to stop future recurrence of mayhem like the EndSars, vigorous assessment of force personnel with regards to every case of citizens maltreatment have to be carry out and of course awareness on public safety have to intensify by those in charge.
Shamsiyya Muhammad Umar
Writed from Mass Communication Department, Abubakar Tatari Ali Polytechnic Bauchi.
