Nigeria Police authorities should address the obvious, well-known problems of police corruption and abuse rather than hounding critics
By Okechukwu Nwanguma
The invitation of Mr. Omoyele Sowore by the Nigeria Police to the Force Headquarters Abuja and his arrest, interrogation and eventual unlawful detention ostensibly over a video he made of some police officers at a checkpoint along Lagos airport road has thrown up a debate about the legality of police officers stopping motorists at random at checkpoints as well as corrupt and abusive police conducts at checkpoints.
Let’s put the issues in perspective by revisiting a few of many previous incidents where police officers at checkpoints stopped vehicles, harassed the occupants, and extorted money from them. In one particular case in Lagos, checkpoint operatives caused two students to miss their flights and in another case, made a passenger traveling in a public vehicle conveying him and others from the East to Abuja to be left behind by the driver and other passengers and had to later pay again to continue his journey in another commercial vehicle after being extorted by the police officers who found nothing incriminating on him.
Sometime in August 2021 RULAAC petitioned the then Commissioner of Police in Lagos Hakeem Odumosu demanding probe and prosecution of rogue policemen who stopped a vehicle conveying two students of Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ikwo (FUNAI), Ebonyi State at a check point along airport road Ikeja, harassed them and extorted their upkeep allowance, and caused them to miss their flight.
RULAAC had expressed outrage over the conduct of the policemen and in the petition to the then Lagos State Police Commissioner, explained that the officers on Saturday, August 14 maltreated and extorted Michael Ekene Okonkwo (20) and his friend Udo Chukwu Maduforo, both students of FUNAI, who had left their homes in Lagos and were heading to the Lagos local airport, Ikeja, to board a flight back to school.
RULAAC explained that the vehicle conveying them was stopped by a team of police officers in front of Golden Tulip Hotel on Airport Road at about 11:00 a.m.
RULAAC noted that the police officers searched the boys and despite not finding anything incriminating on them, and despite their explanation that they were students heading to the airport to catch a flight back to their school in Ebonyi State, and their plea to not let them miss their flights, the police officers refused to let them go.
The victims were delayed and then allowed to go after extorting the sum of N40,000 from the two of them, and the money meant for their upkeep in school was collected by the policemen.
RULAAC lamented how the victims missed their Air Peace flight scheduled for 11:40 am. due to the incident, and they had to return home and travel later at extra cost.
It said in the petition signed by its Executive Director, Okechukwu Nwanguma: “On Saturday, August 14, 2021 Michael Ekene Okonkwo (20) and his friend Udo Chukwu Maduforo, both students of Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ikwo (FUNAI), Ebonyi State left their homes in Lagos and were heading to the Lagos local airport, Ikeja to board a flight back to school.
“The vehicle conveying them was stopped by a team of police officers in front of Golden Tulip Hotel on Airport road at about 11 am.
“The police officers searched the boys and despite not finding anything incriminating on them, and despite their explanation that they were students heading to the airport to catch a flight back to their school in Ebonyi State, and their plea to not let them miss their flights, the police officers refused to let them go.
“A journalist-friend called to draw my attention to this incident, and I asked that my number be given to any of the boys to call me so I may find out what was happening. Michael Ekene’s mother called me minutes later and confirmed that her son and his fellow student going to the airport were held hostage along airport road by some police officers on a stop-and-search operation. She said she was heading to the spot and I asked her to call me as soon as she arrived there for me to hear from the police officers the offence the boys may have committed to warrant their being held hostage.
“Before Mrs. Okonkwo could get to the spot where her son and his colleague were held, her son called her again to tell her that the officers had allowed them to go after extorting the sum of N40,000 from the two of them, money meant for their upkeep in school. By the time the boys arrived at the airport, their flight had left. They missed their Air Peace flight scheduled for 11:40 am. They had to return home and traveled the next morning at extra cost.
“In their own words ‘they harassed us and collected money from us. They delayed us, and one of them pushed me on my face. They searched our bags and didn’t find anything (incriminating) in it but still yet didn’t listen to me after I showed my student ID to them’.
“This is shocking for two reasons. That police officers trained and paid to serve and protect citizens could descend to holding students – young people who could be their children – to ransom and ignored their explanations that they were students going back to school and their plea to let them go – since they were not found with anything incriminating – so that they would not miss their flights. They robbed them of their money and made them miss their flight.
“That in spite the current raging issue of police corruption and abuse of power which has again put Nigeria in the spotlight of international opprobrium, these officers could not be deterred or persuaded to minimise their greed for money acquired through extortion.” RULAAC called on the Commissioner of Police, Lagos Airport Command, to identify the despicable corrupt officers, ensure that they refund the total amount of money they extorted from the students as well as refund the total cost of their tickets.
“The total sum they paid is N66,000. They paid an extra N80,400 to reschedule because it was business class. Total was N186,400″.
It also demanded that the officers be made to face a disciplinary panel.
RULAAC charged the police boss to take further actions he deemed necessary to remedy the violation of the rights of the students, reassure the victims and the general public that the command does not condone or tolerate corruption and abuse of police powers.
No action was taken against the rogue police officers. This lack of accountability is responsible for the impunity that protects and emboldens many more police officers to continue to prey on citizens, causing them inconveniences rather than protecting them.
RULAAC had also documented a case in which a passenger vehicle conveying passengers from Abia State to Abuja were similarly stopped somewhere in Enugu State and a young man in the vehicle was singled out because he was carrying a laptop. Arbitrarily accusing him of being a ‘Yahoo boy’ (advance fee fraudster) based on mere stereotyping, the police asked him to come down. The vehicle was ordered to move on, leaving him behind. After searching him and finding no evidence of being what the police assumed and profiled him to be, they ended up extorting money from him to ‘bail’ himself. He paid extra money to board another vehicle to continue his journey. Of course RULAAC through discrete inquiries was able identity the police officers responsible and the commander of the unit to which the rogue officers were attached, in a rare exhibition of resposible leadership, made sure the rogue officers refunded the passenger the money they robbed him of as well as the extra money he paid to continue his journey. RULAAC was unable to confirm if any disciplinary actions were taken against them as the commander promised.
These two cases cited above are merely illustrative of the routine criminal and predatory activities by police officers at most police checkpoints across Nigeria which police authorities are well aware of but do nothing about, pretending that they don’t happen.
This was the point that Sowore wanted to highlight in that viral video of police officers attempting to stop his vehicle at the checkpoint along the same Lagos airport route where the two students were harassed, back in 2021, unscrupulously extorted of their upkeep money and caused to miss their flight and made to incur extra cost to reschedule their flight.
The Nigeria Police should address this pervasive malaise of criminal policing and impunity rather than hounding those who call them out demanding accountability and reform.
Nwanguma is the Executive Director of Rule of Law Accountability, Advocacy Centre (RULAAC).