Police Service Commission Chairman Solomon Arase, a retired Inspector-General of Police (IGP), recently took issue with the Special Police Constabulary service, saying its personnel were soiling the image of the Nigeria Police Force. He called for an overhaul, disbandment or, at the minimum, introduction of a different uniform for constabulary personnel because, according to him, they are notorious for unethical acts that tarnish the reputation of the entire force.

Arase’s observations were conveyed in a statement late last week by PSC spokesperson, Ikechukwu Ani. According to the statement, the commission is already in contact with incumbent Inspector-General of Police on the need to overhaul the organisation and operations of the constabulary service. “There have been several reports of unprofessional conduct by officers of the outfit, a quasi-police formation created to assist in community policing. Reports of their unprofessional conduct range from highhandedness in dealing with citizens and barefaced extortion on our roads and communities,” the statement said, adding: “The commission calls for an entirely different set of uniforms for officers of the outfit that should be easily differentiated from that of regular police officers.”

The service commission argued that introducing a different uniform for constables would help in tracking the conduct of men of the outfit, distinct from that of regular police officers, such as would free the police force from blame associated with misconduct by men of the outfit. Unlike the force that is centralised at the national level, the constabulary service is a quasi-police formation at state level to assist with community policing initiative largely on volunteer basis. But Arase decried reports of unprofessional conduct by operatives of the outfit, saying it should be disbanded in states where the operatives are not remunerated or taken care of. The statement, last week, added: “The PSC said it was wrong for states to set up security outfits and not fund them. The commission has observed that this set of men have descended on innocent Nigerians for their daily upkeep through forceful extortion and intimidation. The (PSC) chairman…said the commission would work with the leadership of the Nigeria Police Force to sanitise the organisation and operations of the outfit. Dr. Arase said there is an urgent need to differentiate the special constabulary from regular police officers and clearly define their operations, including uniforms and rules of engagement.”

It is reassuring that the service commission, which is in charge of recruitment, discipline and promotion of regular police personnel, is not only keenly aware but also concerned about the conduct of police operatives amongst the Nigerian public. But Arase narrowing in on a subset – special constabularies – is an octave off the reality because the entire force is perceived as corrupt and abusive; and that is not because of just the special constabularies but also many operatives in the regular police service. Actually, one could argue that the special constabulary personnel as portrayed by the PSC chair are a mirror image of the entire force. And the sordid image isn’t all due to the constabulary service, because the image had been there before the community policing initiative that inspired enlistment of special constables by state governments. In other words, the special constables met a constant in the force when they were recruited, which they are merely upholding by their unethical practices that the PSC chairman complained about.

When there was the #EndSARS upheaval in October 2020, the protest was not against special constables but malevolent conduct of some regular police operatives that constituted a deadly menace to the Nigerian public. And much more recently, Force Public Relations Officer Muyiwa Adejobi, an Assistant Commissioner of Police, acknowledged the misconduct of some regular police personnel when he disclosed that he drove into police officers extorting motorists along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. In a post late December 2023 on his X account while replying to a tweet about efforts to rid the force of corruption, he said: “I personally caught some policemen yesterday while driving along the Lagos/Ibadan Expressway. The DPO has been asked to bring them to Abuja. Then we know what to do. It’s disheartening to see some of our men extorting Nigerians. I feel sad, and I don’t like it because it’s a sort of oppression.”

Scrapping the special constabulary service or kitting its operatives differently would not change the story about the Nigeria Police Force. Rather, the security service needs to look inwards and undertake a wholistic character reorientation of the personnel that must as well take account of the reward system. But Arase is right about states running the special constabulary service without due funding. That the operatives are volunteers do not mean they deserve no reward whatsoever, otherwise they’ll find means of rewarding themselves.

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