•Tasks IGP to publicise and implement a template against extortion

The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has called on the National Assembly to enact a law that would criminalise extortion of victims of crime by the personnel of Nigeria Police Force before their cases are investigated and resolved.

HURIWA further called on the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Kayode Egbetokun, to roll out transparent mechanisms and an effective template against extorting victims of crimes. The rights group said verbalisation of condemnation of this criminal tendency by Police operatives as made earlier in the year by the Force Public Relations Officer was grossly insufficient. The association said the Police should set up a data bank of their officers caught and sanctioned for extortion of victims of crime in the country adding that the data bank should be made easily accessible to the members of the public.

HURIWA recalled the case of an Abuja-based flight dispatcher who hails from Nasarawa State, Umar Suleiman, whose daughter Khadijat, went missing in the Kuje Area Council of the Federal Capital Territory in 2016, who reported the disappearance of his then two and half-years old baby daughter to the FCT Police Command, but the Investigator made series of requests which the victim couldn’t afford; and for seven years now, his daughter is still missing and no effort has been made by the Command to unravel the identity of the lone female kidnapper.

The association quoted the crime victim as disclosing in a media interview that; “The Police told me to provide a Sienna bus that four of them (policemen) would use to go and investigate the matter and that I would follow the vehicle for about four to six days. They also said I would pay for their hotel accommodation for the period. A day after that, I posted my contact on Facebook in case anyone saw my daughter anywhere so that they could contact me.”

HURIWA said the fundamental reason crime is getting out of hand is the lack of human intelligence by the police whose operatives are mostly distrusted by a large number of the Nigerian population who have the perception that the police indeed go about extorting citizens just as the Rights group in the media statement by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, specifically stated that assurances made by top police officer and the Force Spokesperson in condemnation of the extortion of victims of crime fell on deaf ears since the cases of extortion of victims of crime have skyrocketed all across the length and breadth of Nigeria and is now a hydra-headed monster.

The group recalled that around February 20, 2023, the Nigeria Police Force, officially said that charging complainants money before reporting and referring cases for investigation at any police station is not only a crime but atrocious, unprofessional, and shameful.

The Force Public Relations Officer, CSP as he then was, Mr. Olumuyiwa Adejobi, who said this in a statement then, had noted that the police authority has received several complaints about how some policemen in charge rooms demand disinfectants, detergents and other items from relations of suspects in detention before granting them access to get detainees food.

Adejobi described the act as absurdity, unethical, unprofessional and at variance with police Standard Operating Procedure (SOP).

“It’s unprofessional, shameful, and criminal for any policeman to demand money from any complainant before reporting and referring a case for investigation at any police station,” he said.

The Force Spokesperson added: “We have received several complaints that some personnel at the counter (charge room) demand for Dettol, detergent, and other items from relations of suspects in detention before having access or getting food to them. This is an absurdity, and it’s condemned in its totality.

“We are working with command CPs and PPROs to address this with a view to eradicating such disservice and unholy acts. Nigerians are hereby urged to report any of such cases to their Command’s CPs and PPROs and lodge the same via our provided complaints platforms. It must be stated without mincing words and emphatically that this act is unethical, unprofessional, and in variance with our SOP.”

HURIWA, however, faulted the style of simply making a statement in the media by the police without the formulation and enforcement forcefully and persuasively, all across Nigeria, of a transparent, accountable and result-oriented ethical and administrative template for stamping out cases of extortion of victims of crime which has become a sophisticated and widespread practices by the state Commands of police all over Nigeria and the federal capital territory.

The group accused some police officers of even framing up those crime victims and most times, get them detained for failing to pay the money demanded from them by the police when they reported their encounters with criminals just as most of these persons have no access to any kind of legal redress against their experiences of the activities of the police extortion rackets.

The group recalled that In 2010, the New York-based Human Rights Watch had reported that “countless ordinary Nigerians attempting to make precarious ends meet as taxi drivers, market traders, and shopkeepers are accosted on a daily basis by armed police officers who demand bribes and commit human rights abuses against them as a means of extorting money.

“Those who fail to pay are frequently threatened with arrest and physical harm. Far too often these threats are carried out. Meanwhile, victims of crime are obliged to pay the police from the moment they enter a police station to file a complaint until the day their case is brought before a court. In the shadows, high-level police officials embezzle staggering sums of public funds meant to cover basic police operations. Senior police officers also enforce a perverse system of “returns” in which rank-and-file officers are compelled to pay up the chain of command a share of the money they extort from the public. Those charged with police oversight, discipline and reform have for years failed to take effective action, thereby reinforcing impunity for police officers of all ranks who regularly perpetrate crimes against the citizens they are mandated to protect.”

HURIWA said the aforementioned report by Human Rights Watch is not only factually accurate and have become even more widespread. The group said it is shocked that no legal or institutional efforts by the police or the Federal legislation has been made to checkmate these activities of the extortion rackets within the Nigerian police force that has constituted a very real and present danger to efficiency and effectiveness of policing tasks by the Nigerian police force.

HURIWA said it is discussing with some lawmakers and credible civil rights groups, with a view to drawing up a proposed bill to criminalise the extortion of victims of crime in Nigeria because of how deeply rooted the crime of extortion by the Nigerian police Force. According to the group, finding lasting panacea to the extortion of victims of crime by police will be the best way for the police to begin to win back public trust and confidence to promote better policing in Nigeria.