Today really isn't a 'very Good' day I must say. Never before have I witnessed such degree of injustice as that which I saw today! Initially, I wasn't really feeling pressed to write, not until I had just enough time in the shower to reflect on the whole drama as it played out and wonder what the hell! We are doing to subdue the level of the degenerated practice of the NIGERIAN POLICE. My, or rather 'our' encounter with the nigerian police is what i'd term 'a rather unfortunate situation exploited favourably'. It all started thusly; when we -- myself, my nephew, and mom -- are at a TOTAL filling station buying fuel when a young okada rider almost intentionally rode into me (their usual craze) without voicing a word of apology! To me, this is kind of normal as it's not strange to see these set of people sometimes harassing you in my area -- pretty much why I don't move around. But not for my nephew! I think she's had enough of their insanity since she arrived. She bashed him, scolded him, shouted at him as he tries to reply. Its getting pretty aggressive already. My mum tries to shut them both up but she couldn't. The guy as you could've rightly predicted was ready to strike her down! It all happened so quick that, not long enough after we've left the bike man at the station in a bid to cool both of their boiling heads, an officer of the nigerian police (detective) who had just witnessed the strife at the filling station had to step in to curb the 'little' conflict that surfaced after the bike man in question waylaid us. Initially, we thought he was on our side since he was at the scene and saw out it all played out. Not until he invited both parties to his police station to settle their differences. Still we were convinced he'd do justice to the situation as evident by his words at the scene. Little did we know he was just trying to bring in business for his people and use both parties as revenue stream on a early Monday morning. To cut the long story short, after arriving at the station and writing couple of statements -- which took several hours (11am - 5pm) as it was written by their semi-literate officers who didn't even know how to properly use the word 'themselves' and 'theirselves' -- both parties were asked to each pay 12K. What? Danm I was mad! I couldn't believe my ears, there hadn't even been any real fight at all, it was just shouting. Off course i've heard and seen all sort of things about nigerian police but not like this one! I was thinking they'd just settle the rift amicably as could be justified by the long hour spent conversing and writing statements that you can now call 'a waste of time!' hence my questions: 1. Is the nigerian police a 'FOR PROFIT' institution or is there something I'm missing? 2. Who really are the police beshielding if ordinary citizens have to wait hours to get their service and eventually pay for? These questions and more I was pondering on in my bathtub and decided to ask you, is the situation the same where you live?

Sad you had this encounter.

But, it will help if you name the police station, and if possible the name of the police officer(s) involved.

You never can tell who is reading this story.

HungerBAD:
Sad you had this encounter.

But, it will help if you name the police station, and if possible the name of the police officer(s) involved.

You never can tell who is reading this story.

thanks HungerBAD, It's one 'olayinka' of 'alakuko' division of the nigerian police in Lagos!

adeagbo101:
thanks HungerBAD, It's one 'olayinka' of 'alakuko' division of the nigerian police in Lagos!

This Station again?

There is no week,something is not written about this Station. About time somebody makes some calls.