“It seems that Nigerian police officers are instructed as part of their training how to extort and terrorise young Nigerians, including students”.
Nigerian youths face many challenges including record-high unemployment, inflation, low-quality education and insecurity. In recent years, the Nigeria Police have compounded the problems by harassing and extorting the youths at every given opportunity. Across the country, but especially in the Southern states, the police mount roadblocks, embark on house to house raids, and invade bars and hotels, all in a bid to find young people to extort.
The menace got to an unbearable level in 2020 when young people decided to embark on a nationwide protest to end the problem once and for all. The October 2020 protest, known as EndSARS, first started as a protest to end the Special Anti-robbery Squad (SARS), the notorious police unit that specialised in hunting young people but quickly morphed into ending police corruption, brutality and all illegalities. While the protest was eventually quashed violently, one would have expected that the impact of the protest would have signalled to police officers to stop picking on young people.
Sadly, nothing has changed. The last month has been full of news of police officers harassing and extorting young men across the country. A few cases covered by national media come to mind. On March 30 in Lagos, police officers accosted Emmanuel Chibuze, a young music producer, and forced him out of his Uber ride. He was eventually forced to wire 1.2 Million naira to the officers. Earlier in March, police officers in Osun had extorted several students of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife. In fact, there have been several similar reports from different university towns. It seems that Nigerian police officers are instructed as part of their training how to extort and terrorise young Nigerians, including students. Earlier this week, a Cyprus-based Nigerian student, Ifeoluwa Lawal who was on a family visit in Osun was robbed of $504 in the presence of his family by men of the Nigerian police.
The police officers perpetuating these crimes abuse their power by accusing their young victims of committing financial crimes. They conduct illegal phone searches to see how much they could get out of their victims. The police leadership has over the years made a show of addressing this widespread problem. Police public relations officers have repeatedly assured the public that police officers are not empowered to conduct illegal searches including going through suspects’ phones without court orders. But their assurances look like a cruel joke when their armed officers ignore the law and do whatever they want without any serious consequence. It is no wonder that the vast majority of Nigerians believe the police is generally corrupt.
Nigeria is a country of young people. Seventy percent of the population is below the age of 30. There is no way this persecution of this large segment of the society will end well for the police and the society. It is inevitable that the persecuted population is going to fight back sooner or later. It is not only in the interest of justice and fairness that the police should cease and desist from the illegal acts, it is also in the best interest of the police themselves. The largely peaceful EndSARS protest later devolved into violence partly because of the violent crackdown by security forces and the deployment of thugs by politicians, but also partly because of the deep-seated anger many young people felt towards the police and the Nigerian state.
The police authorities must urgently control its officers and work assiduously to reduce their penchant for harassing and extorting members of the public. The authorities can deploy various tools and strategies including the use of technologies like body cameras, uncompromising enforcement of the law of officers, improved recruitment standards, periodic investigation of officers to see if their lifestyle matches their salary, and better welfare for police officers to improve morale and help attract better talents. Taxpayers whose taxes fund the police cannot be made to suffer for the failure of police authorities to manage its house properly.
