By Oluwaseyi Oduyela

In late July, a friend called me from Abuja to report a case of her nephew, who was physically abused. My friend said that her nephew and parents have been victims of bullying for 10 years. The bully is in his 40s, and he beat up a 17-year old boy. They have reported to the Idimu police station through petition. Still, the case was never attended to because a police officer at that station is dating the sister of the bully. I forwarded the pictures of the physically abused boy to a newspaper editor who sent it to the Crime Reporters Association of Nigeria (CRAN). Within one hour, the DPO of the Idimu police station was summoned. The Abuser was arrested and charged to court.

On Friday, August 14, a young man, was returning from his worksite in Sango Otta, and he was arrested with some other people by some police officers.  The Police arrested him based on a bogus petition submitted to the Police Zone 2, of a threat to his life by some people. This young man happened to be in the area at the time of the raid, and they arrested him.

I tried to make some calls and a friend; a journalist who resides in Otta helped to call someone in Zone 2. Since it was a Friday, there was nothing to be done, and the IPO was not around. The young man spent the weekend in a police cell. What baffled me was that the Police arrested this man and others without the petitioner around to identify them, and they kept him in their jail for three days.

On Monday, this young man remained in detention for a crime he did not commit. The petitioner did not show up, and they did not present any petition showing his name or his description as one of the people threatening the ghost petitioner. He remained there till around 4pm on Monday. He was later released but not for free. This is what got me angry. For a man arrested and detained unlawfully, his family had to part with N150,000 for his release. What got me angrier was the shocker of my life that I got. While we blame the low-level guys in the Police for all these messes, we tend to lose sight of the fact that some of their officers are the real culprits. The senior who we contacted to intervene was the one who asked the junior ones to “take 150 from them.” The junior officers had negotiated to 100k with the young man’s family. Still, this officer, a female, told the Police in charge of the unlawful arrest to “take 150 from them.”

As I am writing this, some families are at various police stations pricing bail of their sons, husbands, brothers, or uncle languishing in jail for no offence. These are poor people like the police at those stations

As the case of SARS has now become a debate, I want to remind us that this is not new. The News Magazine did a story on a leader of Lagos State SARS and his involvement with criminals, not to talk of innocent people tortured to death at their camp in Lagos.

These men contribute money to buy their own van for raiding; hence the various sienna mini vans they drive around. Someone just informed me tonight too that when they stop people and demand for their phones, they use the phone to send a text to one of them. Another officer will now send an incriminating message to the innocent person’s phone, to warrant arrest of an innocent person.

We also know that “Police in Your Friend,” “Bail is Free,” and “If you see something say something,” are all lies. They are not real. In 2000, when I was working for Tempo magazine, I went to one of the Commissioner for Police briefing. Okiro was the Lagos State Commissioner. The Police paraded the guy who called the Police for help as a member of the robbery gang.  In our presence and before Mr Okiro, the robbers said the guy was not one of them, but the Police paraded him anyway.

In 2001, on a Tuesday after Tempo’s production, I left our Area 11 office to go home. In front of Apo village, some Mobile Police officers stopped our taxi, the driver went down and met them at the back of the car. When he returned, one of us, a student at the University of Abuja, was trying to tell the driver that the Mobile Police had not right checking the driver’s particulars. The driver said it was none of our business.

 On getting to Aso Koro junction, the driver parked and went to the Mobile Police at the roadblock. He told them that his passenger was abusing the Police and calling them thieves. These men ordered us out of the car and marched us to the centre. They allowed the taxi driver to go. The Taxi driver was the complainant, they did not take any statement from him, they did not ask for his contact information. It was then I knew what would happen.

The University of Abuja guy started claiming his rights, and they asked him to kneel and began to beat him. I identified myself as a journalist, and the sergeant told me that he has dealt with several editors, and he would deal with me. Because their focus was on the student, I appealed to them to release the boy and let us go. They released us after one hour.

I went back to the same spot the following day, I met them there. I memorized their names and vehicle identification number. I then went straight to the Police Public Relations Officer who is late now, I told him what happened and gave him the information. He assured me that they will arrest the guys and call me to come and identify them; that did not happen.

The impunity of the SARS as it is called with their notoriety grew wings under Abba Kyari and Kolo. Kyari headed IRT while Kolo headed STS. These two men seem to lose control of their boys. It got to the point that Abba Kyari was asked to report directly to Police Intelligence.

While we condemn their out-of-control attitude and extrajudicial killings, we cannot lose sight of how they have helped to rid the streets of armed robbers.

I have spoken to a lot of people who argued that SARS does not have the right to arrest Yahoo boys. Still, the problem here is that the SARS men are police officers, and they are acting within their police duties to charge if there is probable cause. So, every policeman is a potential SARS, but to be in SARS should have required special training just like the SWAT team in the US. These SARS men do not have any special forces training the equip them for the task they give them. Even their bosses, in charge of SARS, IRT, STS or the federal one does not have the required training to form this Special Force. The IRT that the public is praising for doing an excellent job is an arm of SARS. SARS was broken into two under IGP Idris to settle the rivalry between Kyari and Kolo.

This brings me to the argument and or the question of what is the use of federal Police?

Do we need Federally controlled Police? I have raised this issue many times, and I am going to raise it again that as we review SARS and public safety. I think it is time to put on the table the creation of local and state Police.

As the Police are today, I am sure that the IG cannot boast of knowing the actual number of its men and women. Will it be surprising to know that some police do not report to any division?

Each state in Nigeria has its own peculiar security and safety issues. Therefore, there should be local and state Police. The safety problem in Delta State is different from that of Ekiti State.

The Amotekun that was created by the southwest states has not started operation. In contrast, the local Police in the north is operational. It is high time individual states are left to handle the issue of security and safety of citizens of their countries themselves. In this case, they will be more accountable to the citizens of their states.

The issue of banning SARS is an old song, and it will continue because the problem is not about the Police but about the structure. The state commissioner of Police is not answerable to the state governor, he/she takes orders from the Inspector-General of Police who is an appointee of the President. This should not be the case in the federal system.

What should be at the centre of reform is State Police. Let the states start to take responsibilities, let them rise to protect their citizens. The governors should rise to the occasion, they are responsible for their citizens’ safety from police abuse, armed robbers, and kidnappers.