The police came and we were all rolled to their station. After an hour of pointless rigmaroles, a lady was assigned to our case and interrogation started.
When they were done wasting almost four hours of my time, they let me go, detained the two thieves and impounded the stolen rods on the ground that they were exhibits.
My request to the police was very simple. I wanted them to escort the main thief to the person who bought all the previous rods from him and help recover as much as possible.
Surprisingly, the following day, the IPO called me and made a very strange request. She wanted me to permit her to release my phone number to the thief’s elder brother. As an option, she wanted to describe my house for the man so he would come to meet me at home to plead for his brother’s release. I was completely stunned! Of course, I refused. That was how the perfidious policewoman started mounting untold pressure on me. It began to dawn on me gradually, that I was in for a big trouble.
I started piecing my previous day’s experience together to get some clues. One of the policewomen had thrown an oddball at me. She surveyed me from head to toe and made some embarrassing lewd compliments. She went ahead to ask shamelessly if she could be allowed to come and start working under me, and asked if I really understood her question. I showed her my wedding ring and asked if she understood the full implications of her questions as a law enforcement officer. She said I shouldn’t worry, that madam will not be disturbed and that I should trust her to do an equitable management of the ‘resources’. I just ignored her and faced the DCO. She continued her swan song much to my irritation and kept making faces at me each time our sights met. Her boss witnessed it all! He did nothing bout think
Apparently, two out of the three policewomen who worked with the DCO struggled to get charge of the case. Miss Perfidy won and so Miss Amorous apparently embarked on different route to exploit my situation. When I wont yield after some days, Miss Olawumi unilaterally released the cab driver with his cab, and gave my phone number to the thief’s family. That opened another round of nerve wracking pressure.
When I got tired I escalated the matter to the DPO, mistakenly thinking that would get me the solution. If they won’t recover the earlier stolen rods, at least they should release the ones impounded and do whatever they wanted with the thieves. The DPO seized on that opportunity and started a fresh line of questioning. He asked me what I wanted to do with the rods and I told him they were for erecting our fence and gate pillars. At that point, all of hell got loose. He bellowed:
‘Who uses concrete pillars for fences?’
‘You these rich people (??!!😳)and your ways!’
‘Since I’ve been born, all fences I know are built with ordinary block.’
‘Why wont they steal your rods, you have excess money nau!’
‘You’re just wasting money on ordinary fence’
‘Was it not you I saw in the evening of the other day at XYZ junction driving a red Honda Pilot?’ Stop driving that big car (Old model Honda Pilot!) around in the night o. So you don’t bring a case of car snatching to us here later.’
I was transfixed on the chair as he went on and on and on. There was no option left than to start begging him. He insisted he wasn’t going to release my iron rods and made good his threat for three weeks. My fault was that I attempted to fortify my fence with concrete pillars. I got the rods only after I parted with ‘something for the boys’ who kept vigil over my rods for more than one month.
The assessment of this same police force in 2016 was released a few days ago by a voluntary organization to which our NPF belongs. To many of us here, there was nothing new in the conclusion of the report. Nigerian police stinks.
What is entertaining is the furious rebuttal from police authorities with quickness and energy they should have reserved for crime fighting. These people are brazen. A few days ago, as I drove through Bank Anthony, I beheld the decrepit eyesore that the entrance to the police training college at Ikeja had become. Who hates Nigeria so much as to tell lies against her police. The rebuttal attempted to outline the efforts of the present IG (in addition to marrying an officer who serves under him) as a proof that the IPSA report was untrue; as if the assessment is a scorecard of the IG. That is an example of where we get it wrong in this country- individuals personalizing institutions as if it is their village courtyard. We must change this primitive orientation.
Before I round up, my biggest concern is that if every institution in Nigeria is similarly stacked up against their counterparts globally, which of them will fare better than NPF? Is it our Judiciary, legislature, military, Custom, immigration, the academia, financial sector or public service?