The Nigerian Police Force has not had a very good reputation in 2017. The year has been laden with one controversy or the other, the rot in the Force has never been more evident, its misgivings more obvious.
It’s also more appalling as we have one of the most (allegedly) corrupt Inspector General of Police in Nigeria’s history after the ignoble reign of the “soakaway” Inspector General of Police, Tafa Balogun. The IGP, Ibrahim Idris is faced with accusations of mismanaging billions of naira accrued from the payment for the services of mobile policemen by corporate organisations and individuals.
As damaging as these accusations were, Ibrahim Idris has failed to provide a response but he rather chose to approach a court of law to stop his investigation, an occurrence of acting guilty before being pronounced guilty.
The effect of poor leadership in the Police hierarchy has trickled down to the rank and file of the Force. Last weekend the #EndSARS campaign was trending on social media as Nigerians rose in unison to condemn and call for the reform of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).
Over 5000 accusatory tweets were posted against the police department, but the Nigerian Police was having none of it. The police spokesman, CSP Jimoh Moshood while speaking as a guest on Channels TV breakfast program Sunrise Daily threw caution to the wind by threatening the originator of the tweet saying, “Somebody who had an ulterior motive put up #EndSARS, Nigerians should be mindful because the social media is very porous.
“We traced the hashtag and traced it to mischievous politicians that are trying to create a problem in the system that SARS is a stumbling block for them to achieve an objective in the election and we are investigating this.
“The owner of the hashtag is being investigated. We know freedom of expression is the right of every Nigerian and we are taking people up because of that.
“It is quite unfortunate, I’m not mentioning any name but this same Segun ‘Sega’ Awosanya is the owner of the hashtag and we have seen his picture with various crop of politicians and we are investigating that for Nigerians to know the reason why.”
The inference above is a correct representation of what the Nigerian Police and SARS stand for. Impunity, incompetence and a full-blown hatred for freedom of expression. Jimoh Moshood as a spokesman has shown himself as an extension of the rot in the Police and SARS all rolled up into one!
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