By Temitope Oguntayo

Permit me to air my view on the recent and ever-present travails in the Nigeria Police Force.

It has become a general consensus to virtually all the people of the country that the Nigeria Police Force has become an institution that takes delight in extorting money from internet fraudsters (“yahoo boys”) rather than facing their task to enforce and safeguard the lives and property of its citizenry.

How are we to come to term with the fact that civilians tend to take to their heels when “the men in black” come to sight? Do we call them menace to the society just because of the weapon they wield or for the simple fact that an encounter with them only strikes one warning to heart: extortion?

Here steps in Mr. Fatai Owoseni, the Commissioner of Police of Lagos state and Mr. Fimihan Adeoye, the commissioner of Police of the State of Osun.

The former, being the “overseer” of the affairs of the Nigeria Police Force in Lagos state had to bring some of his men to book because of their dealings with a particular set of the so called “yahoo boys”. Is it not a thing of ridicule and shame that his men after nabbing the boys, had to follow them to the bank to retrieve some certain amount of money from them, unknowing to them that one of them is closely related to a top official who had to call the Commissioner to conceal the truth from him, what happens if such boys are not from “well-to-do” family?

Bravo on the part of Mr. Owoseni, who had to lock up his men on the charge of robbery as is it not comprehendible how policemen will have to follow civilians to a bank just to extort money from them.

His Osun counterpart, Mr. Fimihan Adeoye had to wait till two students of the Osun State University (UNIOSUN) were shot by some policemen while they were playing football on a field outside the campus on a Saturday morning thereby prompting protest from the other students before he could take action despite the fact that some delegation of the students have on numerous occasions gone to him to lodge complaints about his men’s harassment. It is noteworthy to say the policemen were trying to nab some of the students playing football, believed to be internet fraudsters, who in the process of denial, prompt the men in black to rain bullets on them. It was aftermath the incident, some students testified to the policemen always coming into their hostels to arrest them on the ground of being “yahoo” bandits and will have to make away with their phones, laptops and gadgets. The students also confirmed that such act is affecting innocent students on campus too as policemen can easily tag anyone a fraudster once they see them with expensive phones. There is no other way to say this is simply robbery on the part of this particular security agency when we compare these two scenarios.

This act by our policemen has raised eyebrows on their conduct by members of the public whether it is their civic responsibility to forcefully obtain cash from civilians or truly focus on what the ethics of the Nigeria Police Force entails.

Albeit of any conclusion, members of the Force should bear in mind the main aim of the Force, to protect the lives and properties of people of this great nation rather than focusing on what the nabbing of culprits will be to their “selfish” advantage.

It is without gainsaying that this act by our policemen has given more than enough rooms for more youths to engage in internet fraud and other social vices, reason being that they believe they have the support of the men in black once they make contact with them on the platform of buying themselves out of an arrest with money in the first place.

Source: http://www.osun.life/2017/01/28/police-misconduct-fatai-owosenis-legacy-or-fimihan-adeoyes-debacle/