A Victim’s Account of Police Extortion in Nigeria

I HAVE always criticised people who give policemen bribes.  On a number of occasions, I have chastised my friends and colleagues who give inducements in cash to policemen for whatever reason telling them they are parts of the problems of Nigeria. I believe that anybody that commits a crime should allow justice to take its due course and not look for an easy way out.  Also, anybody who believes he is innocent but is being wrongly accused should fight out his case, while maintaining his innocence and let the law vindicate him. Anyone who does otherwise, I always insist, does not have the right to criticise our corrupt leaders.

However, with my experience at about 4.35 p.m. on Friday August 5, 2011, I am not convinced that I will have the courage to preach this gospel anymore.  On that fateful day, I was driving from Ogba to Grammar School bus stop in the Ikeja area of Lagos and was stopped by the traffic light at the Omole junction. When the green light came on, I followed the vehicles in my front to proceed, and just as I crossed the white cautionary line on the road, the yellow light came on. As someone familiar with the rules, I proceeded naturally. Suddenly, a policeman jumped onto my front from the blues forcing me to stop.  Before I could rationalize what the matter was, two policemen have opened the rear doors of my car and entered. They were later joined by the policeman who sat beside me in front.  I demanded to know the reason for the invasion and they told me that I defied the traffic light by proceeding when I should have stopped.

I was amazed and felt embarrassed by their action and statements, but I still tried to keep my cool. I tried to educate them about traffic rules; that since I have crossed the cautionary line before the yellow light came on, I had to proceed. I told them that if the yellow light had come on before I crossed the line, I would have stopped. I explained that as an activist in my own way, I have always preached decorum, justice and fairness and obeisance to the rule of law and that I will be the last person to willfully flout the law.  The policemen would have none of these.  They said I should have stopped immediately I noticed the yellow light not minding if I had crossed the cautionary line or not.  They told me that by my action, I have breached the traffic law and I should either follow them to the station where I will be required to pay a series of fine totaling about sixty thousand naira or I should pay them ten thousand naira so that they could ‘assist’ me to bury the issue.

I became livid with anger. I lampooned them thoroughly and tagged them a disgrace to the Nigeria Police.  I said I was ready to go with them to their station where I will report their misconduct to their superiors. Rather than being remorseful as I expected, I received the greatest shock of my life when the policemen became very aggressive and the one sitting directly behind me, a lanky dark complexioned lady threatened that I could be shot and labeled an armed robber trying to resist arrest.  She said all they would have to do is claim that they found a gun in my car and I was trying to wrestle it from them when it accidentally went off.  I saw her holding what looked like a locally made pistol.  I have never been that scared all my life.  Stories of extrajudicial killings that I have read in newspapers started flashing through my mind.  To compound my fears, while the whole drama was going on, she received a call from someone who she claimed is their boss and I heard her telling the person that I was not co-operating but that she should not worry because they are on top of the situation. I hurriedly emptied my pockets and handed over the nine thousand naira I had with me to them.  They then exited my car quietly.

That I could drive safely to my destination after the incident was a miracle.  I shivered for more than an hour and I could not coherently narrate the story to my cousin who was eager to know what happened.  When I eventually could put my acts together and narrated the story, my cousin suggested that we should go and lodge a report at the police area office at Ogba.  He asked if I could remember the names of those law breakers masquerading as law enforcers. Unfortunately, the shock of what happened had erased their names (which I tried to commit to memory) from my mind. The only name I could remember is Emeka, the first name of the guy amongst them who sat beside me.

We decided to go back to the spot so that my cousin could find a way to check their names from the tags on their uniforms.  By the time we got back there, they had disappeared.  We tried to find out from the people nearby if they knew the time that they left and we could conclude from our findings that they did not return to the spot after ‘robbing’ me.

Though we still wanted to go ahead to report the incident, most of the people we spoke to advised us against it.  They premised their advice on their conviction that the atrocities of policemen in that area have the backing of higher authorities.  They said if it were not the case, those policemen would not have the audacity to keep committing such atrocities so flagrantly and regularly when their name tags are displayed on their uniform, not minding that they could be reported. Some people even came up with a theory that those who are sent on such ‘errands’ by their superiors are provided with uniforms with fake name tags.  Some said we could be framed up for a serious crime, arrested and detained.  Some said I should count myself lucky and regard my loss as a sacrifice to remain alive.  Some people narrated horrible things that they experienced in police stations some of which are just unprintable.

Despite the discouraging comments of people including friends and sympathizers, I still did not want the case to go just like that, unreported, but my cousin insisted that if we weigh all the comments on a balance of probability, it is safer not to press ahead if we do not want to compromise our safety.

Even though I would not want to believe most of the things that people said about Nigerian policemen especially the senior officers, I would say this experience has really opened my eyes to how the society perceives policemen and policing in our country.  Some people’s comments reveal that they dread armed policemen more than they do armed robbers.

This should be a wakeup call to the top echelon of the Nigeria Police.  Though there have been considerable efforts to reform the police and boost its image in the eyes of the public, this does not seem to be working just yet.  There are still a lot of bad eggs within the police waiting to be flushed out.  The Inspector General should therefore devise aggressive and probably ingenious means of sorting them out.

One of the things he can do is to set up a special detective arm of the police populated by those he knows are men and women of impeccable character.  These ones should be mandated to pay unscheduled visit to the different police formations across the country. They should interview detainees and relatives of accused persons who are in police custody to get first hand information about what actually brought them in and how they are being treated.  Sometimes, they may need to disguise as relatives of detainees waiting to get their wards of the hook in order to get unbiased reports.

Anyone who is found wanting, no matter how highly placed or connected should be dealt with in a way that will serve as a deterrent to others.  No one should be treated with kids’ glove because he or she has a powerful godfather or godmother somewhere.  The recruitment process also needs to be overhauled. There should be a fool proof means of preventing criminals and people with criminal tendencies from enrolling into the police as is operative in some civilized countries.

Also, the usual practice whereby reports given by policemen about accused persons and victims of extra judicial killings are regarded as sacrosanct and unimpeachable even when this contradicts eye witnesses’ accounts is not healthy for our justice system and the image of the police.  Eye witnesses’ accounts and statements of the accused (not taken under duress) should count much more than they presently do when trying to unravel criminal acts especially when a law enforcement agent is directly involved.

What kept on bordering my mind all through this unpalatable experience is how justifiable we are to condemn Nigerians who give bribes or gratification to armed policemen. Although most of the people that heard my story believe as I also do that I am a victim of extortion or simply put, robbery, but my worry is that there appears to be a very thin line between bribery and police extortion.

Agreed that many people give out bribes to policemen with little or no prompting, that should not becloud the fact that a lot of people who will love to do otherwise give bribes because they are afraid for their lives.  For instance, how proper will it be to tell someone, “Do not give bribe even if a policeman threatens to shoot you.  Let him do it and see if the law will not catch up with him?” Can a dead person fight for justice?

Until the much needed comprehensive reform of the police is undertaken by all the authorities concerned, punishing everyone who is caught giving bribes to armed policemen may amount to double jeopardy.

• Adekunle lives in Lagos.