When former Inspector-General of the Nigerian police, Mike Okiro told legislators this January he would need N2.78 trillion, equivalent of 90 percent of the 2009 budget -to "run the police force and effectively enhance its crime fighting capacity", a few present may have given him the benefit of the doubt.

The specifics were however a different matter entirely. Defending the figures, the IG's estimate before the House of Reps Committee on Police Affairs allocated N767.5 million to miscellaneous purposes including feeding of dogs, horses and vehicle maintenance. This figure was promptly struck out. The Nigerian Police received a budget of N202 billion.

Reacting, Okiro reportedly called the budget, "woeful", adding that police dogs and horses would not be fed this year and would therefore "die in a week".

But looking at the state of Nigeria's policemen and the barracks they live in nationwide, it is obvious a vast majority of the 300,000 men are actually the one dieing for want of amenities that supports quality living.

When NEXT paid a visit to two barracks in Lagos, it met discontent residents, dilapidated buildings and septic tanks overflowing with faeces.

"This barracks has been smelling for years; this is where we are raising our children", a policeman who lives in the Obalende Police barracks told NEXT, with his hands over his nostrils.

Still, he is better off. According to media reports quoting CLEEN, a non-profit organisation, "less than 10 percent of police officers have official accommodation in barracks many sleep in privately owned apartments. Many others sleep in broken down vehicles."

This was corroborated by a high-ranking official last week, in an interview with NEXT; "Nigeria's barracks have no functioning clinics or steady supply of water, this accommodation thing is worsened by erratic transfers in the Force. Men and Officers can be transferred twice or thrice in a year, depending on the whims of their superior officers. Often, there are no accommodation arrangements and they sleep in offices, laying mattresses anywhere they can."

Cause and Effect

The police chief told NEXT that a mix of widespread greed and government neglect has made the policeman a symbol of inefficiency and an object of ridicule.

"The police are not loved by Nigerians. There are good policemen but they are few, the exception. The lower ranks earn about N26,000 but take home some N18,000 after all deductions. I think an inspector earns about N32,000.

"Between various levels within a rank, the salary differences may have just N100 difference." The official, who has spent almost three decades in service said the frustrations of his colleagues were many; "In the old days, we had stationery delivered to all police stations in their thousands monthly.

"Today police stations buy ordinary exercise books and usually tax litigants to buy these things. Our men hijack commercial vehicles to go on duty. This is despite a budget of ₦5.5 million for office materials and supplies.

"Again, though the budget clearly allocates ₦2.5 million to "uniforms and other clothings", most police officers are yet to receive the light blue uniform their superiors wear. Our source said these men have blatantly justified bribe-taking from the public as their only means of purchasing new belts, boots, torchlights and maintaining their old uniforms.

Illegal Duty

Three weeks ago, newly-appointed IG of Police Ogbonnaya Onova said 100,000 officers (about a third of the entire force) were security personnel for elite individuals.

This is yet another long standing racket, according to the police official. "We call it ‘illegal duty'. All past IGs have passed such directives, yet the middle ranking officers do not listen. Senior officers assign juniors. They remit N50,000 to the police station and officers are sent to guard houses.

The senior officers give an average of N8,000 to these men who risk their lives protecting anybody from 419ners to bank executives. Our men are looking after the aged mothers of celebrities in villages. A magistrate in Osogbo beat up his escort for not opening a gate for him.

Officers were recently shot by armed robbers who attacked houses they were guarding and no query, nothing came out of it.

Even at that, policemen still prefer illegal duty because they are assured of daily meals and stipends at their posting, while the N8,000 augments their salaries. This is selective policing. Who will police the masses?" Our source traces the beginnings of corruption in the system to a heady mixture of politics with policing.

For example, the government gives money for building and rehabilitation of barracks, yet most of these places have not been painted in at least five years, not to talk of provision of amenities.

Policing in the dark

There are three police training colleges in Lagos, Kaduna and Enugu states, as well as a Staff College in Jos, Plateau State, for senior officers. This is in addition to a police academy in Kano and Detective colleges in Kaduna and Enugu State.

Our source disclosed that training and living facilities are lacking in these institutions and this has affected the capacity of officers to fight crime.

"The only forensics equipment in the Force CID headquarters in Lagos and Kaduna are in bad shape. If there's a murder case, evidence is taken abroad for analysis. And this happens only in high profile cases, as all Nigerians know. If someone is murdered in Ajegunle, even if they go there and take evidence, you can't take it abroad.

So all these visits to the scenes of crime are mere formalities. How do you analyse evidence, even if you had the professional mind set to investigate? This is why torture and word of mouth is relied on for investigation of cases. We have never even had artists that sketch suspects and we want to be among the world's top 20 economies in 2020. How is that possible?

If forensics is the eye of watching crime, then we have been policing in the dark."

Quality and quantity

The rot in the sector is apparently to be shared by the public, members of the force and other law enforcement bodies; "people bribe policemen because they do not want to waste their time. This encourages corruption as policemen keep asking for these things and inventing more novel approach to extort money." Again, we have such a bad name that refined people are not seeking jobs with the police.

Most people recruited want to use their uniform to steal from the people. We have been complacent. Many forge papers in the stupidest of ways; you find they must have been seven or eight years old when they did their O'levels. These things are not helped by the lack of databases in the country. Before, there was something called ‘Information Money'; funds were provided to pay informants.

Now informants give information, when a person is arrested, the police extort money and they share with the ‘informant', It is now a business.”

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