Fear in civil service as police launches attack on civil, public servants

– The Nigerian police has made move to sanitise the public, civil service and rid it off corruption

– The force  said it has the backing of the inspector general of police

– It also denied reports by Amnesty International that it tortures suspects

The Nigerian police  has extended its anti-corruption tentacles to the federal, state and local government levels of the civil service.

The Authority reports that the Ibrahim Idris, who is the inspec­tor general of police, merged the X-Squad unit with the Complaint Response Unit (CRU) of the force in a bid to em­power them to investigate and prosecute corrupt civil and public servants.

Abayomi Shogunle who is the officer-in-charge of the CRU said plans have been concluded by the unit to hunt for corrupt civil servants.

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He said: “Since the IGP, Ibrhaim Idris, has approved that the X-Squad should be part of the responding agents of CRU, then we should be ready to see recoveries of looted funds and appre­hension of public and civil servants who abuse their office.

“Just as we have seen the recovery of 2.75 million naira from an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), such recoveries will not be limited to the Ni­geria Police Force alone; it will be extended to public servants at the federal, state and local government lev­els,” he disclosed.

Explaining how the ACP was arrested and the bribe money recovered from him, Shogunle said: “The complaints came in through a phone call and therefore it was referred to X- Squad for investigation.

“At the course of the in­vestigation, the X -Squad found out that the com­plaint as reported actually happened and the 2.75 mil­lion naira bribe money was recovered.

“All the laid down disci­plinary processes to be fol­lowed are being followed and very soon we should conclude on this very case. Let me also add that the person who gave the bribe is being charged to court as well by the relevant govern­ment agencies.”

Shogunle therefore called on Nigerians to report to the CRU any public or civil servant they suspected to be engaging in corrupt practices for immediate in­vestigation and arrest.

While saying that impu­nity among officers and men of the police force has drastically reduced, the CRU Chief expressed op­timism that with the recent training of the officers of the Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS), the image of the Force will further im­prove.

“The training on human right and police relations of SARS officers across the country which was orga­nized by the Nigeria Police Force and Nigeria Unite Against Terror is a welcome development.

“This is because we have discovered from the data the CRU has gathered over time that capacity building of police officers goes a long way in making them to be more professional which in turns reflect on how they carry out their duties. This also gives little room for complaint from members of the public.

“So, with this kind of training where the police officers are reminded of what is expected of them, we are optimistic that train­ing like this will make offi­cers to be more profession­al and in turn reduce the frequency of complaints against them.”

He also denied the allegation of police torture by Amnesty International

“Let us also bear it in mind that, it seems, Am­nesty International have a pattern of reporting not only in Nigeria but across the world. If you check their report all over the world, you will see that they have a template for their report, no matter what you do, that template will still be pushed out for reasons best known to them.

“However, one thing is clear, torture is not part of policing in Nigeria, it is not allowed. Nigeria Police don’t encourage the use of torture. We have other stat­utory oversight agencies in Nigeria that x-ray the ac­tivities of the Nigeria Police Force. From time to time they do visit our facilities and we partner with them.”

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He, however, revealed that the IGP has given ap­proval for the translation and printing of the CRU handbill and posters in dif­ferent languages for better understanding by Nigeri­ans in all parts of the coun­try.

“They have been translat­ed to local languages so as to make people that cannot read English language get information regarding the CRU. IGP Ibrahim Idris has given approval for this.

“In the coming days, the IGP will launch the sensi­tization campaign which is expected to cover all the local government areas in the country and emphasis and focus on the grass root so that they can be aware of the avenue provided by the Nigeria Police for members of the public to make their complaints known to the police authorities.”

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