Police chief arrested over N2.7m bribe

…As complaints against policemen record reduction

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NIGERIA: AN Assistant Commissioner of Police, who received N2.75 million bribe to free a suspect, has been arrested by the Complaint Response Unit created to monitor misconduct within the Nigeria Police Force.

The Acting Assistant Commissioner of Police Abayomi Shogunle, who is the Head of Complaint Response Unit (CRU), disclosed this in the unit’s third quarter report made available to GatewayMail.

The arrest of the police chief, whose name and command was not disclosed, coincided with the sharp reduction in the number of reported cases lodged against policemen throughout the country.

According to the report, the “bribe money was recovered from an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) serving in one of the state commands after a complaint was made to the CRU through a telephone call.”

The report stressed: “Necessary disciplinary procedures are ongoing against the officer involved in the unacceptable conduct just as the suspect arrested in respect of the case upon which the bribe money was collected has since been handed over to the relevant government agency for prosecution for the offence that necessitated the arrest of the suspect.”

It added that the bribe was recovered from the ACP after the case was referred to the X-Squad for necessary action in line with the directive of the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Kpotun Idris that the X-Squad be included as part of CRU responding agents.

The report, however, explained that no fewer than 324 cases out of 405 complaints made against policemen over alleged professional misconduct were resolved by the CRU.

Similarly, 51 out of the cases, which were between last July 1 and September 30, were found to be false accusations, while 30 are pending for determination.

“Rivers Police Command tops the state ranking with a total number of 78 cases, followed by Lagos with 72 and FCT-Abuja with 48 cases,” the report added.

It further stressed that over half of the complaints against policemen came from four state commands – Rivers, Lagos, FCT-Abuja and Anambra – which accounted for 55.06 percent of complaints during the period under review.

“No single complaint was reported against the police in six state commands – Bauchi, Jigawa, Katsina, Kebbi, Osun and Sokoto,” the report stated, adding:  “Kebbi State remains the only command with no complaint made against the police since the inception of the CRU in November, 2015.”

The report further said: “Professional misconduct tops the complaint distribution category with 154 entries, followed by demanding money for bail with 144 entries. More complaints were received via phone call – 294 cases, while WhatsApp – 55, Twitter – 20, email – 19, Facebook – 6, SMS – 2, BBM – 1 and 8 cases reported via others (petition letters, media publications).”

However, the report stated that the “new inclusion of X-Squad as one of CRU responding agents in addition to State Provost Marshals, OC SIB, Control-Room demonstrates the IGP’s determination in ensuring more effective response to cases of alleged police professional misconduct nationwide.”

The drop in complaints against policemen, the report emphasised, was due “to the fact that Nigerian Police officers are becoming more professional in carrying out their duties as a result of capacity training programmes, the zero tolerance of the current police leadership to all forms of professional misconduct and the police awareness that the public can now easily report unsatisfactory police conducts.”

The report further explained that in order to increase the level of awareness about the CRU, Idris has approved the production of CRU information handbills cum flyers in local languages.

It stressed that the flyers and handbills would be distributed to all local government areas in the country this October.