Abusers not protectors -- how Nigerians view their police force

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
Wednesday 25 May 2005

NIGERIA: Abusers not protectors -- how Nigerians view their police force


[ This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]



©  George Osodi

Nigerians have been protesting, sometimes violently, about the brutality of their police force

LAGOS, 24 May 2005 (IRIN) - The popularity of Nigeria's corrupt, poorly-paid and often brutal police force may never have been lower.

Four riots have erupted so far this month, as residents have risen up in anger at what they say are police murders of unarmed civilians. Some were said to have been killed just because they refused to pay a bribe.

Last week, near the southern oil hub of Port Harcourt, police shot dead a youth who was one of several hundred people demonstrating about unemployment. The dead man's fellow protesters carried his body to the local police station before setting the building alight, smashing and burning patrol cars, and attacking officers with machetes.

Twenty-four hours later in the south-eastern state of Enugu, hundreds of truck drivers blocked a major highway to protest against the killing of one of their colleagues who had refused to hand over a 20 naira (15 US cents) bribe at a police roadblock.

"We see instances of police abuse and brutality in Nigeria every day," Carina Tertsakian, a Nigeria specialist for Human Rights Watch, told IRIN on Tuesday. "It's a pattern of behaviour that's left over from the military era. But we've had six years of civilian rule now."

"There has been a certain amount of cosmetic change. For example, the government has at least been making the right noises about cleaning up corruption, but we've seen no changes as far as other human rights abuses are concerned," the London-based researcher said.

"Nigeria still has a type of policing based on confrontation with the population rather than protection," she added.

Until the beginning of 2005, the official motto emblazoned on police patrol cars across Africa's most populous nation was "Operation Fire for Fire".

In January, as a new chief of police took over, it was changed to "Serving with integrity and honour." However, experts believe that a parallel shift in police mentality is still some way off.

As a recent editorial in the Nigerian daily Vanguard put it: "A poorly-paid, lowly-motivated force can turn its gun on anyone."

Reaching for the gun

The Centre for Law Enforcement Education in Nigeria (CLEEN), a local NGO, estimates that policemen at checkpoints resort to shooting in one out of 20 instances where motorists refuse to pay the bribes demanded. This in turn provokes more widespread clashes.

“When fatalities occur people often respond with anger, burning down police cars and police stations," CLEEN's executive director, Innocent Chukwuma, told IRIN. “There is brazen extortion by the police going on in different parts of the country, but especially in the provinces."

The teeming commercial capital, Lagos, is not immune to the problem. Earlier this month, a motorist was killed by a policeman during a traffic argument in the city's Maryland district. A mob quickly formed and burnt a police car in response.

It is not only bribes demanded at roadblocks that trigger protests. Sometimes perceived police incompetence is the cause of the unrest.

At the beginning of May in Yauri in the northern state of Kebbi, residents went on the rampage after police freed four men suspected of being behind a robbery. During police attempts to restore order to the remote town, officers shot and killed four people, witnesses said.






Chukwuma of CLEEN says this month's unrest forms part of a worrying pattern of clashes between Nigeria's 200,000 policemen and the citizens they are supposed to protect.

However, Tertsakian at Human Rights Watch believes that although there has been some popular resistance to brutal police practices, the protests will remain small-scale and patchy.

"There are phases where you see pockets of anger when people's backs are pushed to the wall, but overall it's very difficult for ordinary Nigerians to do anything about the police," she said. "To put it bluntly, they risk being shot dead and they know that."

Emmanuel Ighodalo, the spokesman for Nigeria's police force, acknowledged that decades of serving under repressive military regimes have not given policemen the sense of being a friend of the people.

But he said that officers implicated in wrongdoing in clashes with civilians were usually sacked, arrested and tried for appropriate offences, including murder. Police chiefs were taking the matter seriously, he said.

Servants of the people?

“We want a police that respects the fundamental rights of the people and knows that we are the servants of the people, using guns bought with the tax payer's money,” Ighodalo told IRIN.

However, the tax payers are generally far from impressed with their police force.






"Those in police uniform see the job as a money-making tool for themselves and not as a means of securing society," moaned Thomas Akinwale, a doctor in Lagos.

Corruption in the Nigerian police force seems to extend to the very top.

In January the Inspector General of Police, Tafa Balogun, quit under a cloud of corruption allegations. Three months later, he was brought to an Abuja court in handcuffs to face more than 90 counts of stealing public funds worth more than 13 billion naira (US $98 million).

At the other end of the spectrum, demanding bribes at roadblocks is one way for the lowest-ranking policeman in Nigeria to supplement his meagre salary of just 9,000 naira (US $68) a month, which often isn't even paid on time.

Police spokesman Ighodalo says that under the command of the new Inspector General, Sunday Ehindero, the authorities are putting considerable effort and resources into instilling the principles of “democratic policing”.

He said the new boss had adopted a strict zero-tolerance policy on corruption, but admitted that it would take time to bite.

“When we say zero-tolerance of corruption that does not mean police are no longer collecting money on the streets. We still have pockets of deviants,” he said, urging Nigerians to report those stepping out of line so they could be weeded out.

But experts and ordinary Nigerians remain sceptical about how much the police force will change, given that corruption flourishes across the West African country, despite attempts by President Olusegun Obasanjo to crack down on it.

“The police are only reflecting the abuse of office by those in the corridors of power,” said Mayowa Oluwole, a Lagos resident who describes himself as a frequent victim at police checkpoints. “They will only change when Nigeria as a whole also begins to change.”

[ENDS]


[Back] [Home Page]

Click here to send any feedback, comments or questions you have about IRIN's Website or if you prefer you can send an Email to Webmaster

Copyright © IRIN 2005
The material contained on www.IRINnews.org comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian news and information service, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies.
All IRIN material may be reposted or reprinted free-of-charge; refer to the IRIN copyright page for conditions of use. IRIN is a project of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.