Police: Any Lessons Learnt?

The feud between the Nigeria Police Force, Choba Division, and the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT) branch of the National Association of University Students (NAUS) over a blockade causing traffic gridlock close to the UNIPORT main gate is yet another indication that the police, unfortunately, have remained curt and unfriendly. That does not project a favourable image for the force.
The real nitty-gritty of the crisis was captured by the Deputy National Secretary-General (DSG), NAUS, Najeem Abayomi, who said the police were requested to take down the roadblock as it would cause traffic jams during the matriculation ceremony of the university which was held on February 1, 2022. Abayomi had recalled that the barrier was erected during last year’s killings of policemen in the South-East, which spilled into Rivers State.
It was reported that the blockade was always the cause of serious road traffic jams on the East-West Road, which is the major road to the university. Several accidents had occurred on that road following the closure. As a result, the Dean of Students’ Affairs of the institution, Dr Chima Wokocha, huddled with the management of the Choba police to get the rampart taken out to avert unnecessary traffic jams during the matriculation event.
Rather than heed Wokocha’s imploration, the police arrested him and the Student Union Government (SUG) President of the university, handling them as common criminals. A student, who was spotted recording the scene, was almost shot by the police, the account further stated. But for the prompt mediation of the state Police Commissioner, Eboka Friday, the situation would have rummaged.
Brawls between UNIPORT students and the police are a recurring decimal. In 2016, students of the university, protesting a hike in fees, claimed that they were assailed by the police and a student was killed in the process. Although characteristically, the police denied the allegation, it was commonly considered to be truthful.
In 2019, the Nigerian Senate incriminated the police for the death of Chinedu Obi, a final year student of the institution, and mandated the authorities of the force to pay his family N10m as compensation. Obi was arrested after a dissent with a female phone seller for alleged assault and died in disputatious circumstances in police custody after being denied access to family members and medical care.
The action of the police in the Choba road palisade saga is reprehensible and most unpropitious. It is hard to comprehend why despite the placatory engagements of the school with the police authorities about the vexatious barricade, the law enforcement agents still maintained the status quo that the clog would not be dislodged, and proceeded to apprehend principal persons of the university in a sheer display of authority. That action was insensitive and capricious.
It is regrettable that more than a year after the #EndSARS protest in the country, the police have imbibed no lessons nor are willing to do so. Members of the force still clamp down on protesters, conduct illegal arrests and detention, as well as torture and brutalise suspects. These are obvious clues that the police have not moved an inch from their spot.
There have been considerable complaints about police exaction of students of the university, with no severe sanctions meted out to the erring officers. In March last year, no fewer than six operatives of the disbanded Eagle Crack team of the state police were arrested for allegedly extorting an undergraduate of the university of N150,000.
Rather than investigate the accusation and possibly charge the suspects to court, the victim claimed that the Investigating Police Officer (IPO) at the State CID intimidated him and his friend severally over the statement made at the police headquarters which the IPO alleged was not creditable. To date, the police have failed to make public their investigations of the Eagle Crack operatives.
Some UNIPORT students have accused personnel of the Rivers State Police Command of invariably harassing them, breaking into their rooms and carting away their paraphernalia in the Alakahia community near the campus of the institution. The students said policemen, appearing like members of the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), often broke into their off-campus lodges, arrested them and collected their laptops and phones.
Police rapacity of students has attained a discomfiting height. Sadly, these officers fleece students, sometimes going dangerously far to compel them to the bank to withdraw from Automated Teller Machine (ATM) points and hand the monies to them to regain their freedom. These invidious activities of the force constitute a huge foreboding to the students, especially the younger ones. The police, particularly in Rivers State, must be called to order.
A major challenge of the Nigeria Police Force is its modus of recruitment of applicants seeking employment in the force. An additional concern is that most of the applicants seem morally and academically impaired. The Police Service Commission (PSC) recently disclosed that more than 90 per cent of applicants failed the recruitment examination, a situation that gives the jitters.
This is a sad reflection of the calibre of officers to be engaged to secure our people and communities if they end up being enlisted in the police. We must galvanise upright and responsible citizens to apply for a place in the force. If our active and virtuous youths are discouraged from joining the police, where are we going to source for the police officers of our dreams?
Since criminals and terrorists are now engaged in a strategic security organisation like the nation’s police, we call for recruitment into the force that allows traditional and community leaders including local government council chairmen to have their inputs to check the enlistment of people of questionable character in this all-important security agency. This will bring about a desirable police force for the country.