Here's a short story about one of many incidents with the plice. This one happened during my visit to Nigeria last summer.

I was at OAU in Ife visiting some friends and we all went out for fun. We had a nice day in town and wanted to return to university. A friend of mine was having trouble with the bus conductor and they were dealing with their problems when a car sommersaulted in the air three times as i recalled. I went straight there to assist. There were two male passengers they wee both drunk. The passenger at the back of the car came flying out of the car head first. Th car landed on its drivers side so the driver was stuck.

All cars slowed down at this point and drove right through. None rolled down their window to even check anything they were just slow to protect their tyres. All public transport guys disappeared and were no where to be found. The few i saw were unready to help insisting they needed 5 student ids. The best i could do was 2 and that was including an offer to pay them #15000 for a ten minute ride to the gate of the hospital. All dclined insisting the police will take more than that and they could even be done for murder.

We ended up getting the driver out of the car and he was actually ok enough to talk but he was injured badly. Broke his arm amongst other things. There was a lot of broken beer bottles mostly gulder on the floor and some were even still untouched. After a lot of negotiations with no result, we decided to visit the mans home for assistance apparently it was only about ten minutes away on foot. So we asked the okada drivers to assist in sending the message across quickly. This was a night when you could have sold up to ten motorcycles on ebay or even given them away as most of the motorcycles were left with their keys and others were just left there with no driver in sight.

In other not to get in more trouble, we decided to walk down to the address of the driver. On our way, we saw the police van. It had eight policemen in there including a police constable( don't know what they are called in naija). Being an amateur and the fact that i hadn't been to Nigeria in about five years i opened my gob and asked one of my mates if we should tell the police what was going on. At least, the problem can be resolved quicker that way. He whispered to _{"in this country, you don't tell the police what to do, you could get in trouble for it. If they keep moving, they will eventually see it down the road and there, they can deal with it or do whatever they want to do. Let's keep walking"} He said.

I forgot to mention that the police were dealing with a member of the OPC when we arived at the scene because his motorcycle had a defective headlight. They were about to take it in when we arrived at the scene. The OPC member was still beeging for his bike not to be taken in when the constable suddenly said _{"what did you say"}. We kept moving and then he said _{"you there, i said come back here"}. Since we were the only ones on the street apart from the OPC guy, the police themselves and ourselves, we had to turn back.

I called a policeman aside and started chatting to him about the problem. My mate went to the constable and started having a chat that i just came from a village and never dealt with the police before so he was trying to explain something to me that i was naive and didn't know about the town, so he was teaching me about the authorities in the big city. The constable - i forgot to tell you was drunk - was pissed off and started getting aggravated. My mate kept trying to persuade him to understand his viewpoint. Meanwhile the OPC was still being dealt with by another police officer and the one i was chatting to made a signal to his superior to highlight there was a problem futher down. The constable just dismissed his attempt to get his attention. This meant my mate had to come up with the full story.

He explained and he said all he meant by the statement was that they were going along the same direction and that they will eventually offer their assistance. He mad a mistake of saying _{"seargent, please i'm sorry, we are on our way to call the man's family to the crime scene and maybe they can drive him down to the hospital"}. The constable just went mad as if being drunk wasn't enough. _{You are calling me a seargent, i went to the university, studied for five years, came out with an upper class bla bla bla bla bla, u students are full of shit, you have no respect, "}. He called another one out to lock my mate and said he was taking him in. By this time, the OPC had failed to negotiate and his motorcycle was almost inside the van. My mate started begging the police locking him by his belt to please release him and help in persuading the constable to let him go. I was doing the same with the one i'd being talking to all night.

The constable checked his gun to see if it was loaded. He cocked it, pointed it at me then about three quarter way up and took a shot. Damn that thing almost deafened me because it was unexpected and uncalled for. My mate eyed me to start moving away since i was free. I couldn't leave without him so i was still negotiating. He started getting pissed at me but i still wasn't going anywhere. He eventually got free as the constable was loading his gun once more. By this time, all lights went off and not even a squirrel was on the street. I had even tost sight of my OPC guy. All i knew waht there four police men outside the van and four inside the car. My mate started off behind kiosks into a residents courtyard. I followed him but noticed the constable had finished loading and was cocking his gun. I ran behind him.

I was sure we couldn't stay in this courtyard and made for the back of the house. Behind the house was a fence that was twice as tall as i was. Thank God that i wasn't such a good boy in the previous life i let behind before i left Nigeria. He asked if i could make it or needed a hand. I said i was ok and made my way over the fence. You could hear the van in the courtyard as we lept over the fence. We ran like hell till we got to our residence. Luckily, the injured's residence was just a few blocks away from my mate's residence, so we were going in the same direction anyway. When we arrived, he ran inside, locked the door, changed, but lights on, music and washed his hands and face. I refused to do anything except take off my shirt. The next morning, we found out the passenger at the back died of head injuries. The driver liver lived to tell the tale.

Why are they allowed to carry guns self when the guns are only used to kill innocent citizens and are being hired to armed robers? In my opinion they should not carry guns at all afterall if they hear of armed robbery they will run away, so tell me what the guna are for? My kids who are over 4 years have never seen gun before except toy guns because they live in a country where there is government and even though the police here never show off guns around they still curb crimes and catch up with robbers and their is save to walk on. Do you know its crazy the way these guys cally long and heavy guns when there is no war? it's surprising and i just feel in my own opinion that those heavy and long guns should be bound on the road and let them id possible not hold guns and if they must they should hold small one that they can keep in their pockets because the sight of those guns makes me fear and i know not only me but a lot of us. Can someone please tell me the relevance of holding heaving, giant and long guns when they can not face any armed robbery scene?

Sorry for the typing mistake in the last line ''Can someone please tell me the relevance of carying openely heavy, giant and long guns when they can not face any armed robbery scene?

imagine that story by the previous writer who was only visiting his fatherland! If the bastard drunk police had succeded the guy's life would jsut have been wasted and imagine how that poor man died due to no assistance? God will never forgive those people, no wonder some of us has decided to stay in another man's country! why not when my son only had chest infection which was affecting his breath and all i did was dial 999 and in few minutes i had ambulance in front of my house to take him to hospital and infact was receiving treatment in the ambulance and got to the hospital in the waiting arms of a nurse who took him from me and to the doctor who wasted no time in treating him immediately, and you know what? at no cost to me!

i think the nigerian police are improving at least take a look at what the commisioner of police is doing within the short period of time he became the commisioner, thing have just started changing. I also think it's as a result of the good leader we have

Can someone imagine been embarrassed on the street by Nigeria police without any reasonable reason,

The Nigerian police will just comes around and started searching people's bags and file saying that they heard a stupid report about the street,
It is quiet embarrassing,

So we dont have to be afraid of thief or hoodlums anymore, we should rather be afraid of the nigerian police because they are also hoodlums who doesn't know the right things to be when raiding the street.

Its really bad and I think something really has to be done about the,

Nigerian police needs discipline,

I have nothing but contempt, for the NPF.

I have heard all manner of horror stories, witnessed brutal beatings, seen victims of police brutality in Nigeria maimed, and scarred for life.

Sometimes for offences as minor as "daring to answer a police officer back". Or refusing to pay a bribe, for some trumped-up charge.

I have also come close to being a statistic of NPF brutality, because I absolutely refused to pay a bribe, for an offence that didn't exist! They're a disgrace to their office, and if I had a gun containing just one bullet, and was faced with a member of the NPF, and an armed robber, I reckon I'd shoot the police officer, and take my chance with the robber.

As far as I'm concerned, the NPF can't use poor wages as an excuse to forcibly extort money from innocent citizens, and beat those who refuse to / can't afford to pay up. They don't need to be police officers, they have a choice to seek alternative employment!

I view them as worse than animals.

Siena:

I have nothing but contempt, for the NPF.

I have heard all manner of horror stories, witnessed brutal beatings, seen victims of police brutality in Nigeria maimed, and scarred for life.

Sometimes for offences as minor as "daring to answer a police officer back". Or refusing to pay a bribe, for some trumped-up charge.

I have also come close to being a statistic of NPF brutality, because I absolutely refused to pay a bribe, for an offence that didn't exist! They're a disgrace to their office, and if I had a gun containing just one bullet, and was faced with a member of the NPF, and an armed robber, I reckon I'd shoot the police officer, and take my chance with the robber.

As far as I'm concerned, the NPF can't use poor wages as an excuse to forcibly extort money from innocent citizens, and beat those who refuse to / can't afford to pay up. They don't need to be police officers, they have a choice to seek alternative employment!

I view them as worse than animals.

Hmmmm!  Nothing to add!

It can be frightening.  Is that now how Dele Udoh the track star I believe from the UK or some other foreign country lost his life in Nigeria while visiting?  Arguing with hungry, marijuana crazed police or MOPOLS on the street when they tried to extort money from him?

I had the unfortunate experience of being stopped from the airport for a "strip" search inside the bush.  I will never forget that day. I thought we were all going to die since I thought they were uniformed gang members. Do Police men carry out strip searches in Nigeria? I asked my parents later and was told that anything is possible in Nigeia. Guess I forgot where I was and was dressed like a "kpom"---   After thrashing all my suitcases one of them finally asked me how many pairs of legs I was going to use to wear all my pairs of shoes.  Like it was his bloody business?  But I knew not to argue because his gun was corked  right in my presence!

Please do not argue with those sufferheads next time.  They would gun you down in a heart beat and claim you are a "robber" before anyone can identify you as someone's son or daughter.  Terrible!   And some people are complaining of the treatment in the hands of foreign police by Osuofia and co?   We are finished in Nigeria, all because of the NPF---Gosh!  I hate them with a passion!

From the read stories so far, we all can equally say that the Nigeria police are nothing to rely upon and they are virtually a disgrace to this nation

Although, as far as I am concern, I think they have all rights to choose an alternative employment which is even better than pulling down the reputation of the country "Nigeria",

i love those guys.they understand one language and become your friend if you understand the language too, "EGUNJE".

Police Accused of Torturing And Killing Thousands

20 November 2007
Kano

Nigeria's judicial system is so flawed, human right groups say, that police frequently take the law into their own hands, torturing and executing suspects without trial, particularly those suspected of armed robbery."People accused of heinous crimes like armed robbery, murder and rape can buy their freedom in court," Shehu Sani, Director of the Civil Rights Congress, a coalition of human rights groups in northern Nigeria. "This frustrates the police who re-arrest these people and kill them," he said."Others are killed because they might implicate some influential people while still others die as a result of torture to exert confessions," Sani added.


Nigerian police

The accusations come on the heels of an 18 November statement by Human Rights Watch (HRW) which said that the Nigerian police may have killed more than 10,000 people since 2000.HRW called on the Nigerian government to launch an immediate inquiry into the killing in the last three months of 785 people suspected of armed robbery.Nigerian police spokesman in the capital Abuja, Haz Iwendi, told IRIN that it will take time for the police to respond properly to the accusations as they are so serious. "We will carefully study all the accusations and verify them and respond appropriately," he said.The civil rights group's Sani said he saw the police commit atrocities first-hand when he was jailed as a pro-democracy advocate under the military regime of Nigeria's former military dictator, Sani Abacha. "I was witness to situations where suspects were removed from cells and either tortured or simply executed," he said.He said little has changed for suspected criminals in the eight years since the country returned to civilian rule. "The police usually take suspects to the outskirts of town, shoot them and then tell the media that they were killed in battles with the police or while trying to escape."Sani partly blames local human rights groups for not properly monitoring the abuses. "They are not very interested in rights violations at the local level but in rights violations at the political and elitist level," Sani said.He also said the families of alleged armed robbers and rapists often have little sympathy, Sani said. "This gives the police a blank check to treat the suspects the way they do."HRW also called on Nigeria's police chief, Mike Okiro, to follow the lead of the Nigerian army who recently apologised for mass killings it committed in 2002 in Zaki Biam, in central Benue State.But human rights advocate Sani said that the army massacre was a one-off while police killings occur daily. "Tendering an apology will not change anything," he said. "The best remedy is to re-orient the police through vigorous human rights education."

Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/200711200997.html

NPF: trigger happy cowards

It is indeed very absurd and unpalatable to witness with bitter experience the waton butchery of innocent and law-abiding citizens by the Nigeria Police Force.These are Nigerians born by Nigerians in Nigeria.They were trained and employed by Nigerians to serve and protect Nigerians with intergrity.But its sad to note that their gross incompetnce,sheer wickedness,trigger-happy nature crass inability has slapped Nigerians on thier face as a reward.
For that i condemn them as being ungrateful to God and mankind hence are useless and not better than the gentlemen of the street.

They are cowards who are legalised armed robbers and bullies.

Simply NATIONAL DISGRACE[color=#990000][/color]

quite frankly, i dont think we have a police force, period

i view them as nuisance to the ccountry at large.NO FUTURE AMBITION (NNNNNNNNNN FFFFFFFFFFF AAAAAAAAAAAAA)

Somebody should locate this policeman and find out from him who detailed him to that China man.

I wont blame the policeman at all. As you can see, thats a job he has to do. And its an 'order from above'

@Horus,

Those men in that picture are not Nigerian Policemen. Dont mislead anyone in here.

Nigerian Police? A bunch of useless layabouts.

corrupt, inefective , inefficient set of xters

i think dey are . . .
i hate dem especially wit dere uniforms on. .

Men, Nigerian Police are my worst enemy. The facti s that if you argue with them they can shoot, even when you are trying to put them right. Is high time for Nigerian Government to start laying off those illiterates that does't know their left from right. Nigerian police will see red and insist is black. There is no difference between them and men of underworld. Infact their behaviour is nothing to write home about.

dem de mad!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Naija

em19em6:
Naija

so you dug out this old post just to type "naija"