The Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Usman Alkali Baba has been charged by Youth and Students Advocates for Development Initiatives (YSAD) to be more proactive in stopping his men from extorting motorists on Federal Highways in the South-East rather than issuing mere orders.
Chief Executive Officer of YSAD, Obinna Nwagbara, during a Press Conference in Aba said that from Aba to Umuahia, Enugu to Nsukka, Okigwe to Owerri, Owerri to Port Harcourt, Umuikaa Junction to Owerri, Aba to Ikot- Ekpene and across several major roads in the region, uniform men are making life unbearable for business people.
Nwagbara said that an immense amount of hours are lost daily on account of multiple checkpoints set up ostensibly for the purpose of extorting motorists and other road users and called on President, President Muhammadu Buhari to demonstrate leadership by compelling the leadership of various law enforcement agencies in Nigeria to call their men to order.
He also urged the leadership of sister security agencies to the police to do more than mere issuing of orders to their subordinates and save Nigeria from another ENDSARS experience and equally called on motorists to obey traffic rules at all times.
“It is unfortunate that the issue of extortion on our roads continues to multiply with reckless abandon, with perpetrators unashamedly going about their ugly activities in the full glare of the public, including innocent children.
“In addition to the multiple checkpoints on the major highways, roads within the cities are also not free for motorists because of the activities of extortionate officials desperately making life unbearable for hard-working Nigerians.
“Scores of lives have been lost at these checkpoints in the last few years as trigger-happy officials readily point the guns at those who fail to pay these bribes; the outcome in most cases have been lethal.”
He added that it is disappointing to note that despite countless orders for the dismantling of these illegal checkpoints by various IGs of Police, the story continues to get worse.
Nwagbara said that he finds it strange that rather than have reduced or zero checkpoints in line with the express orders of the police leadership, Nigerians are continuing to see more of these checkpoints in their cities or while they commute interstate.
“Shall we also forget a recent resolution passed by the Nigerian House of Representatives last December, calling for the dismantling of the checkpoints? What did we see last Christmas? More checkpoints with gun-wielding officials engaged in ‘open bazaar’ on our roads.
“Sadly, almost all checkpoint-mounting agencies including the police, army, FRSC, NDLEA, and various task forces across the states were active in this show of shame on our roads this past yuletide, openly collecting bribes from motorists and even making change for those who so demand or who bribed with higher denomination.
“Seeing all of these, we were forced to ask: at what point did Nigerian roads become commercial banks and security and law enforcement agents, cashiers?
He said that it is the conviction of YSAD that the stakeholders and indeed all citizens should be worried and concerned by these brazen acts of corruption, at a time the President Buhari continues to talk about anti-corruption campaigns and programmes.
Nwagbara said that following YSAD’s engagement with several agencies of government last year in addition to their well-attended Youth Summit and Stakeholders’ Dialogue held in Aba and Owerri respectively, it shall in the New Year build on the great gains made in the maiden edition of their anti-bribery campaign and make a greater impact in the New Year.
“We are working to raise the level of conversation on the menace of extortion to get officials of government across the states and Federal Capital Territory, Abuja to begin to take action on this.
“We can no longer watch idly as Nigerians are exploited and coerced into paying bribes by gun-toting security and law enforcement personnel.
“For us at YSAD, our focus is to contribute to building a decent society, where people can confidently and freely travel from one location to another, without being hounded or coerced into paying bribes by law enforcement agents.”
He thanked their supporter, VOICE, for their interest and support for the project, stressing that YSAD’s determination however is to bring to an end the tragic menace of bribery and extortion as soon as practicable.
Dr. Lady Ngozi Okechukwu, Abia State Director, National Orientation, Agency (NOA) who was present during the press conference made recommendations she thinks will help go a long way in solving the menace of extortion.
According to her, a set of rigorous recruitment criteria needs to be adopted when hiring people into the force. She said this standard should follow global best practices as it will allow for critical assessments of attitudes, motivations, psychological makeup, and quality of more than just basic knowledge.
Other recommendations include: “Conduct comprehensive orientation of new members of the Police on rules and consequences regarding misconduct. Routine re-orientation of active members should also be adopted.
Frequent behavioral training should be adopted on an annual or bi-annual basis. This will help keep members of the Police Force in sync and familiar with the standard of behavior that is always required of them while discharging their duties.
“Frequent Legislative Solutions. The National Assembly should create legislation assigning supervisory and prosecutorial powers to PSC, NHRC, and PCC and room for scheduled public engagement and assessment of the work of civilian oversight bodies to determine the effectiveness and build faith in the system again.”
She also charged the legislators to create legislation granting watchdog licences to Civil Society Organisations and Human Rights agencies to supervise and call public attention to accountability issues where necessary.
She also recommended that stiff punishments should be introduced and efficiently upheld against internal and external interference of investigations of police misconduct, as this will serve as a deterrent against persons who try to influence or interfere with ongoing investigations.
Other recommendations are Administrative/Systemic Solutions where she said that the digitalisation of handling complaints of police misconduct should be adopted in line with international best practices to make the job faster and smoother and improve tracking and periodic evaluation.
“The frequency of misconduct hearings/trials should be increased and optimized for faster and fairer accountability processes.
“A comprehensive centralized database for managing and tracking offending officers should be set up. This will enable a profiling system to be updated and accessed by authorized entities where and when necessary
“A strict quarterly and annual report breaking down complaints by regions, ranks, offences, and outcomes should be written and made available for public perusal. This will engender trust and a sense of accountability towards the Police among the citizens.
“Incentives for good behaviour among police officers should be employed whereby police officers are rewarded for good action while misconduct is severely punished. This has the potential of making good behaviour competitive and misconduct undesirable.
“The existing metrics and criteria for promotion and performance evaluation should be amended to include consideration of misconduct. This should be made elaborate and clearly defined by stating the type of disciplinary action administered for an offence or the number of complaints against a police officer. All these serve as a rationale for measuring bad behaviour.”
