The Nigerian Police yet again displays its incompetence

Jimoh Moshood

Within five minutes of speaking without a script, the Nigeria Police on Tuesday, through its national spokesperson, Mr Jimoh Moshood, showed clearly why it would take more than semantics of media advertisements to make the Force a friend of the people.

On Channels TV’s Sunrise Daily with Maope Ogun and Ajuri Ngilari, Mr Moshood said he would not “join issues with a drowning man”, referring specifically to the Benue state Governor Samuel Ortom on his remark that the Inspector General of Police should resign. Seated to the right of the Force PRO was Mr Terver Akase, a media assistant to Governor Ortom, who took exception to the remark by Mr Moshood, leading to a few minutes of raised voices that required the firm intervention of the show’s anchors to forestall a shouting march.

Mr Moshood would not retract the comment as demanded by Mr Akase, doubling down on his stance that it should be the Benue state Governor who should resign over his inability to protect his state.

As has been widely observed in reactions on social media, it was a show of shame, an exhibition of unprofessionalism by an officer of the law, and a demonstration of incompetence in public relations by an officer who represents the face of the Police Force.

To be sure, Governor Ortom of Benue has been anything but a drowning man. The death of at least seventy-three persons in the state from the first day of the year has practically given Mr Ortom no time to focus on any other affair of state other than beckoning on the Federal Government led by Muhammadu Buhari to put an end to the crises which remains ongoing in the state and in other parts of the Middle Belt. The Governor has not minced words in his criticism of President Buhari’s efforts, deeming them insufficient because the latter should have known about the impending catastrophe based on intelligence reports as far as November 2017. For all of the president’s claims of having done so much to restore order in the state, the Governor has continued to agitate for more to be done.

Mr Ortom has asked the Inspector General, Ibrahim Kpotum Idris, to resign but it would seem Mr Moshood’s caustic comments on TV proceeded from animosity against the Governor for his criticisms of President Buhari. The Nigeria Police have historically served at the pleasure of the President and his party; there probably has never been a time when this fact was more obvious that under the present Buhari administration. The Police have shown that they are ready to react against any groups or persons whose actions or comments represent an affront to the interests of the President; they have done so with Charly Boy and the Our Mumu Don Do Movement and more recently with Oby Ezekwesili and the Bring Back Our Girls Movement.

And it surely can be said that this impulsive subservience of the Police to the interests of the President was behind the order of arrest issued against Kassim Afegbua, the spokesperson of former military head of state, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, whose press statement published on Sunday essentially asked the President not to seek a second term. Mr Moshood justified the reason for the arrest on the pretext that Mr Afegbua’s statement was capable of leading to “break down of peace in the country” because it was a “false statement” and a “defamation of character”.

But to anyone who read the statement and has heard of the confirmation by the former Military leader that the statement came from him, Mr Moshood and the Police’s reasons for wanting Mr Afegbua do not stand up to scrutiny. They appear very flimsy, vindictive and thoroughly unprofessional. Mr Afegbua’s statement for IBB was no more a defamation of character as that written by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. One wonders why the latter has not been declared wanted too for causing the “breakdown of peace in the country” and “defamation of character”.

A well run Police Force is an invaluable institution for a prosperous democracy and all must be done to support its cause. However, the Nigeria Police continues to throw up a sequence of actions that raise doubts over its value to the development of the State. It still has not properly addressed the fatal deficiencies of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) despite the stream of complaints and awareness for reform last year. It is still a Force where Police officers can shoot into the driver’s seat of a moving vehicle. It is still an organisation whose officers can kill a bus driver, sparking commotion and the burning of government properties.

These actions do not inspire any confidence and Mr Moshood referring to a Governor of a state depressed by what many have called a pogrom as a “drowning man” will only serve to further drown any hope that the Police could be our friend, or an institution worthy of trust.

 

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