Stopping, arresting anything and everything in sight!
My fellow indulgees, for a very long time now I have been meaning to bring this matter before this our august Square Table for discussion. “What matter is this that you have been keeping away from us for so long, Phillip?” That’s one of you, ever impatient indulgees, trying to jump the gun as you all always like to do. This was a matter that needed full understanding by me before being brought to the full house. After all, what would you make of it if this chief indulgee came here to the Square Table and blabbed about something which he has limited or no knowledge of? I am sure it would still be all of you impatient indulgees who would go stones-in-hand and, like some people would want the rest of the world to do, pelt them in my direction!
Now, having managed to wriggle myself out of what I consider a frontal and impatient questioning by a fellow indulgee at our Square Table today, I think I should proceed to the matter at hand. This matter had suddenly become urgent in my mind upon seeing a scene from a Nollywood flick (yeah, yeah … flick, flick), Tears of the Poor, in which policemen at a checkpoint on the lookout for specific criminals, following radio signals from their control room, went about it in the most unintelligent manner. One particular police group, stopping a car occupied by young and obviously innocent young boys and girls, including a girl who was on her way to write an examination, proceeded to round them up and take them to the police station, whereupon they were detained for such a long time that the girl missed her examination. This was an incident that changed the course of this poor girl’s life; and I believe, as it does happen in real life, this is the fate of many innocent people who have the misfortune of falling prey to many unprofessional policemen and policewomen.
There is, indeed, some sadness when you find yourself face-to-face with what, clearly, is life imitating arts, upon encountering certain ilk of policemen and women. For one, it would seem as if there is always one of two things happening with members of the black uniform force. It is either there is a grave lack of professionalism amongst the rank and file, or that they know what to do (because they have been taught the right thing to do) but have blatantly decided to not be professional about their job. Here’s a typical case in point. You are approaching a police checkpoint and there are a number of cars in front of you. You can see that the drivers ahead are all switching on their inner lights. As you approach the officers, you take a cue from the drivers ahead and switch on your own inner lights.
Let me make a confession right away. What you read next is based on watching a lot of police-related television programmes. As you get to this checkpoint, what’s running in your head are a number of questions. As chief indulgee and newspaper man, that’s one thing I know how to do best. “This checkpoint surely is a routine one. It must be a deterrent checkpoint to put the fear into the lives of those who might want to embark on nefarious activities.” That would be me making those rhetorical statements almost at once. Or better still: “Are these officers on the lookout for anything in particular?” “Has anything happened around here necessitating this military-style checking?” You can ask all the CSI (Crime Scene Investigation) questions you have learnt from watching too much crime and police television programmes, but you can never second-guess the Nigeria Police at any checkpoint! It would seem that as motorists approach any checkpoint, how they are treated is determined by the personal idiosyncrasies of the officers mounting the checkpoint. If you have come close to an officer who has had a tipple and it reeks right into your nostrils, you must have realised why you were guilty even before you got to the point of being asked: “What’s in your booth?”
And that brings me to the reason why I try very hard to contain my anger when I am asked by policemen at checkpoints what’s in my booth. Oh yeah! I am going to tell you I have a stolen Sallah ram, if indeed that’s what I have in there, just because you asked me? You would think that as well-trained officers, schooled in the art of psychology and people profiling, checkpoint policemen would be looking out for cars and drivers they find to be suspicious, and if they did that they would just ask the driver to park and the occupants of the car to step out for a search of persons and booth. At least that’s what policemen do in American movies, isn’t it? The question “What do you have in your booth?” seems like a dumb question to me and its use at checkpoints should be banned! Yes, the Inspector General of Police should ban the use of that question and get his officers to do the proper thing.
The sorry thing about this whole checkpoint behaviour is that you are asked that question sometimes only when you come across as putting up a straight face. And you know you do that when you have nothing to hide and you are 110 percent sure you are not guilty of any crime. I think it’s often for them a way to punish you. I think I sometimes hear them saying: “Who does he think he is? Let’s get him out of this big car to open his booth to show him we are in charge!” That’s a particular kind of mentality and it runs deep among people who are very poor in spirit.
But just in case you are wondering why I have continued to talk about checkpoints, then come with me.
I have been observing over a few years now that our policemen would stop at nothing to stop any vehicle carrying anything that they can classify as ‘load’. I really find it hilarious when I am driving past and I see policemen standing beside a rickety truck carrying scraps and it would seem to me that they have apparently ‘arrested’ the driver and passengers to explain the ‘scrap’ they are carrying. Every time I come by such a scenario, I would ask myself or anyone who cares to listen – “Is there a law disallowing people who are in the scrap business from carrying their scrap from one point to the other? Why do policemen and women like to stop them?”
After trying for some time to look for answers related to a particular law, I found that this matter was much more than that. The police will arrest anything in sight, and wait for money to exchange hands to get the innocent released. The degree of this psychological brutality is enormous for our country and its people, especially the poor who end up not able to defend themselves properly against their fellow poor policemen who ride on their uniforms and the guns they carry to take on the cloak of monsters!
It is policemen and policewomen also who would in the most unprofessional manner, by the standard of international policing (at least we see loads of this on television), attend the scene of a crime and arrest everybody and everything they find around, even before they had started investigation; even before they had found out what exactly went wrong. They would lock people up and they would expect them to be bailed with money, even when it is wrong to demand money to bail someone who is not a suspect in any case under investigation! Haba, Naija Police!
By: PHILLIP ISAKPA