Hi Nairalanders. The Nigerian Police have become a serious embarassment to us Nigerians(my opinion, yours may differ). I stand corrected but their salaries have since been improved but their attitude seems to remain the same. they see their uniform as a tool with which to harrass innocents Nigerians on the streets. Imagine a police man at a check point ordeing you to open your hand bag for a stop and search. As if that wasn't enough, he then asked for the wallet which was in the bag to also be opened for him to view its contents. This is no joke, I am dead serious. i couldn't beleive my ears. Was a wallet resembling mine reported missing or was it just a show/abuse of power as a result of the uniform he was wearing? Personally, i think it's a groos abuse of fundamental human rights to ones privacy. Very soon they'll ask for one to strip so they can search, Bloody fools, all they know how to do is collect N20 on the streets of Nigeria when crime is multiplying and no one even bothers to try to solve these crimes. What do we do to reform the police force and restore it's dignity. I don't know about you but I don't have any iota of respect for these people. Please air your views,

true, the Nigeran police force needs a lot of improvement.

In the meantime, if a police officer asks you to open your wallet, whats the big deal there? You want to prove stubborn over a wallet and risk getting yourself in unnecessary trouble?

am asking because even abroad a police officer can also ask you to empty the contents of your wallet.

otesy:

Hi Nairalanders. The Nigerian Police have become a serious embarassment to us Nigerians(my opinion, yours may differ). I stand corrected but their salaries have since been improved but their attitude seems to remain the same. they see their uniform as a tool with which to harrass innocents Nigerians on the streets. Imagine a police man at a check point ordeing you to open your hand bag for a stop and search. As if that wasn't enough, he then asked for the wallet which was in the bag to also be opened for him to view its contents. This is no joke, I am dead serious. i couldn't beleive my ears. Was a wallet resembling mine reported missing or was it just a show/abuse of power as a result of the uniform he was wearing? Personally, i think it's a groos abuse of fundamental human rights to ones privacy. Very soon they'll ask for one to strip so they can search, Bloody fools, all they know how to do is collect N20 on the streets of Nigeria when crime is multiplying and no one even bothers to try to solve these crimes. What do we do to reform the police force and restore it's dignity. I don't know about you but I don't have any iota of respect for these people. Please air your views,

Wallet checks are used by police in the hope of catching 419 guys. They hope to see foreign currency in there, hence the check.
You probably look suspicious, that's why they checked you. You may wanna stop wearing those big collar shirts


And if you think the Pay increase for the police still is adequate, you gotta be naive.
Tell me, have any of you complaining ever contributed money to widows of slain policemen? Paid solidarity visits to such families?
Does your church collect money for that same purpose?
The Policemen can have no reasonable savings and retirement plan with their current income, so they resort to such antics to get by. Not condoning them, but i understand.

Condoning the excesses of the police force because of their circumstance isn't going to get us anywhere. The civil servants in the federal and state ministries aren't exactly earning much but they haven't taken to the streets harrassing innocent people who are in the same predicament which they face. They taxi drivers on the streets, the unemployed graduates in all nooks and crannies, the public primary and secondary school teachers haven't decided to collect bribes and harrass innocent people either, and their duty isn't necessarily to enforce the laws of the land. If these people can face and tackle the hardship which they face without commiting the atrocities the Nigerian police is known for today then why do the police have to be different? Agreed, they have challenges but so do 90% of the population of Nigeria. You don't condone the excesses of armed robbers simply because they don't have other sources of income other than their wicked activities so why should the police be condoned. I think the double standard is totally not out of place,

otesy:

Condoning the excesses of the police force because of their circumstance isn't going to get us anywhere. The civil servants in the federal and state ministries aren't exactly earning much but they haven't taken to the streets harrassing innocent people who are in the same predicament which they face.

They taxi drivers on the streets, the unemployed graduates in all nooks and crannies, the public primary and secondary school teachers haven't decided to collect bribes and harrass innocent people either, and their duty isn't necessarily to enforce the laws of the land. If these people can face and tackle the hardship which they face without commiting the atrocities the Nigerian police is known for today then why do the police have to be different? Agreed, they have challenges but so do 90% of the population of Nigeria. You don't condone the excesses of armed robbers simply because they don't have other sources of income other than their wicked activities so why should the police be condoned. I think the double standard is totally not out of place,
[quote][/quote]

But it has been this way for over a decade now. Why are you all worked up now?  Because you got picked on by them recently? lol

I still fail to see how a wallet check is excess.

yes, there are excesses, but is this particular example you mentioned, one of them.

discentralise the police force

1) have city police

2) state police

3) have a somein like fbi

TCUBE:

discentralise the police force

1) have city police

2) state police

3) have a somein like fbi

I am for that. Give power to states when it comes to law enforcement and management of the force. I am sure Lagos state man will do better if it were that way than as it remains.

F.B WATIN? FOR 9JA? MY GUY 4GET DAT TIN, GIVE THEM THEIR 20 NIARA MAKE THEM DEY GO, IF YOU LIKE DONT GIVE THEM THE 20 NAIRA, THEM FIT STOP AND SEARCH YOUR BALLS THIS TIME.

nawah1980:

F.B WATIN? FOR 9JA? MY GUY 4GET DAT TIN, GIVE THEM THEIR 20 NIARA MAKE THEM DEY GO, IF YOU LIKE DONT GIVE THEM THE 20 NAIRA, THEM FIT STOP AND SEARCH YOUR BALLS THIS TIME.

OUCH-A-LOT!!!! Roflmao!!

TCUBE:

discentralise the police force

1) have city police

2) state police

3) have a somein like fbi

hehehehe. . . , . . . .Those state governors must be salivating at the prospect
of having a legion of political thugs sanctioned by law.

There is always that possibility but I hope at least some progress when that happens. If not in all states, at least in some states, when it comes to tackling corruption in the force. The Lagos state man seems to need that extra boost to help his plan for the state.

Well I think the balkanisation of the Police force is a good idea,
but there must be a concerted effort to ensure their independence
from political robbers especially with the funding.

An oversight role for social, civil, religious leaders is strongly recommended.

doyin13:

An oversight role for social, civil, religious leaders is strongly recommended.

Ok,  ,  What social/civil/religious leaders do you have in mind here?? Aren't most of those we have now part of the problem we have in the country?

TCUBE:

discentralise the police force

1) have city police

2) state police

3) have a somein like fbi

State Police??

That will be disaster, considering the level of indiscipline among our politicians.

What needs to be done to improve the policing in Nigeria as opposed to the current sham and embarassment? The police need to be policed themselves, some see them as armed robbers and i don't blame them. You hear stories of police men just setting up "check points" as a means to collect "thanksgiving, "thites and offering", (whatever you want to call it) only to jump into the bush and change into mofti and civillian outfits when actual armed robbers come around and then ofcourse coming back out when the armed robbers have just left and shooting some rounds of those paper guns into the air to announce their conveniently "a bit too late arrival".

Yes the police force needs funding, but this is not the major issue at all. Discipline should be enforced in the force and flogged back into existence because it simply does not seem to exist. This will include  what has been done before which means the use of an agency which enforces discipline in the police, some agency you can call to report police officers, like the EFCC(but an actual working organisation) of the police whereby such will arrest police people who are caught taking bribes on the streets, such will look into police's unruly behaviour and citizens will be able to take badge numbers ,from police and use it as a means of reporting which particular officer was offending. I think such has been done before though i can't remember exactly which part of the country, might have been port harcourt (though i seriously doubt it). However i continue to maintain that the task of having a federal police structure whereby states cannot even recruit their own officers or properly discipline them, a system whereby bureaucracy stifles effective management should be scrapped. Let states and smaller regions be allowed to police their citizens, it will just make management and enforcement easier to control, etc.

why are nigerians always negative, for God's sake the federal police aint working, state police force are not controlled by the state , they are independently funded, meaning that they do not answer to any governor, I dont see why that it intricate to decipher, some people just have narrow vision