For many years, some personnel of the police force in Nigeria have been accused of nearly everything a policeman or woman should not do including bribery, corruption, extra-judicial killing, extortion, theft, highway robbery, leasing firearms to criminals, and conniving with criminal elements to perpetrate crimes. The ongoing trial of DCP Abba Kyari added drug trafficking to the list of the burden carried by the police. Despite the poor public image of the Nigeria Police, it is cheering that some of its serving officers recently demonstrated special attributes that made them heroes within an institution generally perceived by many Nigerians as one of the most corrupt in the country.

The Inspector General of Police (IGP), Usman Baba, recently charged senior police officers to always commend their personnel who have exemplarily excelled in their duties, which have in turn impacted positively on the goodwill and image of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF). The IGP made the charge while commending Sergeant Sampson Ekikere, attached to 22 Police Mobile Force, Ikeja, Lagos, for his uncommon professionalism exhibited on Saturday, March 19, 2022, when he recovered a wallet belonging to one Mr. Lukman Abaja, and traced the owner to deliver the found item.

In a statement signed by the Acting Force PRO, CSP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, the IGP also commended Sergeant Yahaya Ahmed attached to Higher Shari’ah Court, Tudun Wada Division, Gusau, Zamfara State, for rejecting a N300,000 bribe offered him by one Chukwuka Jude, who was arrested on January 18, 2022, for the offence of false presentation and cheating by impersonation. Also commended by the IGP was CSP Elemide Akinkunmi who was Head of Operations at the Police Radio. CSP Akinkunmi’s bank account was mistakenly credited with the sum of N600, 000. The officer withdrew the sum and remitted it back to the Nigeria Police Cooperative Society treasury.

It would be recalled that in June 2021, Garba Saleh, an inspector with the Kano State Police Command also rejected a N1 million bribe in the line of duty. Inspector Saleh was attached to the Kano State Consumer Protection Council (KCPC), an agency saddled with the responsibility to check expired products, confiscate and burn them according to the provisions of the law. While on an operation in a store in the Sharada area of Kano, a shop owner pleaded with Saleh to help him so that his goods would not be confiscated.

The shop owner dragged Inspector Saleh aside and offered him N1 million as bribe. Before the shop owner’s son arrived with the money, Saleh alerted members of his team who promptly came around. The money was brought and the man was arrested. The operation uncovered expired products worth over N1 billion in the store. The goods were seized and handed over to the consumer protection council.

According to Inspector Saleh, many reasons prevented him from taking the bribe. “First, my religion prohibits it, and in the training we had as police, we were asked not to take bribe’, he said. Saleh said he felt elated when the KCPC rewarded him and his team with N1 million; adding that he had never received that amount in his life. Later, again, the Police Community Relations Committee in Diaspora through its Lagos office rewarded Saleh and his KCPC partner with an additional N1 million.

The integrity displayed by the police officers cited in the few cases above is most reassuring; indicating that hope is not lost in the Nigeria police. Moral values imbibed from the teachings of our religions as well as the discipline and training handed down by exemplary parents all have their respective influence on the virtues that make up an individual’s personality. The police and other categories of public servants in Nigeria should be inspired by the three instances under reference to reject all forms of financial inducements, expose every act of infraction, and resist every pressure, connivance and intimidation to leak official documents or information.

The courage exhibited by lower-ranking police officers to suppress greed despite their poor take-home pay and their refusal to play along in corrupt practices when some senior police officers with better wages and privileges are allegedly getting involved in drug trafficking repudiates the widely perceived correlation between poor salary and corruption.

While we encourage police authorities to always appreciate personnel that have demonstrated exceptional qualities of integrity, self-restraint and accountability by rewarding them with accelerated promotion, or at least, a letter of recognition, we enjoin other security agencies, MDAS, corporate organisations and the private sector to develop and institutionalize procedure for recognizing persons with outstanding qualities. With Sergeant Sampson Ekikere, Sergeant Yahaya Ahmed CSP Elemide Akinkunmi and other unsung police heroes, the Nigeria police would soon reclaim the image of its once glorious past

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