Can Egbetokun Engineer Attitudinal Change among Policemen?

In view of the failure of the previous efforts, including the violent #EndSARS protests to force policemen to maintain professionalism in the performance of their duties, Ejiofor Alike writes that the success of the recent directive by the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun for additional training and reorientation courses to be implemented for attitudinal change among police personnel remains doubtful

As part of the renewed efforts of the authorities of the Nigeria Police to enthrone a regime of professionalism in the force, the Inspector General of Police (IG), Kayode Egbetokun, recently ordered additional training, reorientation courses and weekly lectures to enhance police professionalism.

To his credit, Egbetokun has made more efforts to rid the police of the bad elements tarnishing her image than his predecessors but the unscrupulous elements in the force have remained unrelenting in their unprofessional misconduct.

The bad image of the Nigeria Police is of global concern as many Nigerians in the diaspora have shared their ugly experiences in the hands of unscrupulous officers and men of the force.

Several reports by Amnesty International (AI) and other human rights organisations, as well as court judgments had also indicted the police for human rights abuses and extra-judicial killings.

The bad reputation inflicted on the force by bad eggs appears to have eclipsed the good works of the other officers and men who have distinguished themselves in the force.

In an interview conducted last month with The Free Press, a US media outfit, the leader of the UK’s Conservative Party, Kemi Badenoch alleged that officers of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) stole her brother’s watch and shoe.

“My experience with the Nigerian police was very negative. However, my experience with the British Police was very positive when I came to the UK.

“The police in Nigeria will rob us. When people say I have this bad experience with the police because I’m black, I say well… I remember the police stole my brother’s shoe and his watch,” she reportedly explained.

According to her, giving a policeman a gun in Nigeria is just a licence to intimidate others.

Reacting to Kemi’s allegation, a netizen with the username Irishnaija on X also narrated how policemen abducted her 15-year-old, mixed-race son from Victoria Island in Lagos, confiscated his phone and dragged him to the Gbagada Police Station, for dyeing his hair.

“My husband and I, along with our lawyer, rushed to the station. At the gate, they confiscated our phones, and then I saw my son—half-naked and sitting on the ground with over 100 others outside the station. I collapsed in tears. My husband, who is British, demanded to see the DPO and asked him directly: ‘What offence are you charging my son with?’ The boy hadn’t been allowed to explain himself, yet the food and PoS machine were right there at the station. The DPO’s response was that he dyed his hair. That was it. Nothing more.

“In the end, we were forced to pay for his release. This incident was a turning point for my husband, who decided that we couldn’t continue living in Nigeria,” she narrated, according to a media report.

Police officers and men have committed crimes that are worse than the offence for which they were accused of by the UK opposition leader.

Despite efforts by the Nigerian government to reform the police, rogue officers and men have continued to engage in armed robbery, kidnapping, extrajudicial killings, extortion and other crimes.

In January 2024, the police authorities recovered $3,000, then equivalent to N4,200,000.00, collected as ransom from a man kidnapped by three senior police officers in Aba, Abia State.

The three officers serving in the Rivers State Police Command kidnapped the man in Aba, transported him to Bayelsa State and later to Ughelli in Delta State, where they forcefully collected the $3,000, according to a police statement.

However, the money was returned to the victim by the police authorities on January 18, 2024.

In September 2024, the police authorities also recovered N3 million which some officers extorted from a Nigerian based in Ghana, Kelechi Isaac, at gunpoint on August 26, at Odi Axis of Bayelsa State.

The money was recovered by the Zone 16 Headquarters of the Nigeria Police and returned to Isaac.

The Rivers State Police Command had in December 2023 arrested four of its officers who abducted a hotel worker in Port Harcourt and negotiated for N1 million ransom.

The officers arrested their victim near Choba in the Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of the state.

The policemen reportedly threatened that they would kill him as they had done to some other victims who refused to pay ransom in the past.

The policemen who insisted on N1million ransom, threatened to tag him a kidnapper and throw his body into the Choba River after killing him.

The policemen took him to a bush around Aluu in Ikwerre Local Government Area of the state.

However, luck ran out of the officers when the matter was reported to the Divisional Police Officer (DPO), who disguised himself as the father of the victim.

The DPO then pleaded with them to meet him at a certain location to collect the N1 million ransom.

But on getting to the location, the DPO and his team disarmed the police officers and arrested them.

Operatives of the state police command had in May 2023 arrested a corporal, Bright Wamadi, and two others for snatching a Toyota Corolla car at gunpoint in Port Harcourt.

In July 2024, the Kogi State Police Command arrested a police crime Inspector, Aminu Mohammed, for alleged car robbery at the residence of those around his duty station, the ‘C’ Division in Lokoja, the state capital.

In Lagos, a 24-year-old man, Idris Bakare, was returning to his house at No 4, Baale Street, Oregun, Ikeja area in May 2023, when he was killed by a trigger-happy policeman. 

An unnamed police officer was also arrested in Lagos State in July 2024 for allegedly raping a 17-year-old girl in Lagos State, according to the state police spokesman, Benjamin Hundeyin.

The failure of reforms to curb the excesses of police officers had led the Nigerian youths to take to the streets in October 2020 to demand the disbandment of the dreaded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).

The protest was hijacked by criminal elements, who caused the death of many policemen and civilians, as well as burning down of several police stations across the country, alongside other government facilities. 

However, no lessons were learnt as other units of the force have continued to operate like the disbanded SARS.

The directive by the IG, Egbetokun for additional training, weekly lectures and immediate implementation of reorientation courses for all police personnel is a welcome development in his sustained efforts to rid the force of rogue policemen tarnishing the image of the force.

However, the success of this latest effort remains doubtful given the failure of the past reforms.