Police extortion on highways

Oludayo Tade

Police extortion is a common problem faced by commercial and private vehicle owners in Nigeria. There is a common saying among my friends that you are the host whether you visit a policeman or he visits you. Such is the way the police are characterised in our society. While there are sound officers and men in the Nigeria Police who are thoroughbred professionals, the bad eggs, who seem to be in the majority have made the good ones acquire the master status of “the police is your enemy”, rather than the “police is your friend” written on the walls of most police stations. There is no doubt that the police are one of the security agencies very close to Nigerians yet untrusted. The way we socialise our children from childhood is indicative of the perception of the police as a terror group. For instance, a crying child is often threatened by his/her mother with police to keep quiet or else a policeman will arrest the baby. The police as a security institution are feared. This ought not to be so. People should fear them only to the extent that they know they will perform their constitutional duties without fear or favour not because they know that though they are law enforcers, most of the time, they break the law. Have you encountered the police on the highway demanding money from motorists particularly the commercial vehicles who are vulnerable because of their own failure to get the right papers for their vehicles? How many of us encourage the drivers to pay the money so that we can get to our destinations early enough? Have you not read in the media of many extrajudicial killings arising from failure to give in to extortion request by commercial bus drivers?

 While these questions are vital, there is a need to understand what sustains this culture of extortion with a view to making the leadership of the country arrest this situation. The question is what sustains this extortionist character in Nigeria police?

The answer to the above was supplied by an insider- a policeman whom I met on my way to Ibadan from Ogun State recently. They were about four at the checkpoint on a highway. It should be noted that police checkpoints are usually mounted at dangerous points on the road-at road meanders, top the hill and potholes with the aim of making it difficult for would-be victims to escape. My car was flagged down and I had to pull over. Looking at my car, he saw the “Press” sticker and jokingly asked “if I ask you to give me something (money) for the weekend now, won’t you give me?” I replied that I don’t give police money adding that I would even collect from him. That was where the revelation started. It is not a tale that I have not heard before as a journalist of over 15 years, but that a policeman stood with me for about 20 minutes was significant for me. I also promised to write about it. He was in the affirmative, an indication that he wanted things changed or remedied. How can we expect them to perform their duties when they worry about patrol vehicles?

The police patrol van which they brought to the location was reportedly being maintained by the team. He told me that they “maintain” the vehicle from the money they make on the highway. Two days earlier, before we met, he told me that they had to repair the vehicle with close to N20, 000 which was part of what they were planning to share for the month. This gave me insight into the lucrativeness of highway extortion and this may be higher depending on the location, the vulnerability of road users plying that axis and the time of the week the checkpoints are mounted. Monies extorted from motorists are shared between those on the patrol and their “Ogas at the top” in the office-the Divisional Police Officer. Only faithfulness will keep officers on the posting when returns are made to the superior in the office.

The relationship between those we see on the road and their bosses are padded with naira. He narrated a scenario when he complained to his boss (DPO) that they did not make money at the checkpoint; that the road was not good but got a shocker as reply from the DPO whom he quoted as saying: “I know that you must have suffered in the sun making no money. Don’t worry you will stay with me in the office and enjoy here while I will assign others to the street to suffer just like you did”. By implication, he was to be “denied” the opportunity to have access to the street–the location of extortion. This is why thorough checkups are not done and arms and ammunition become commonplace since the motive of the police is not public safety but personal survival based on transactional postings.

Monies made on the roads are shared weekly or monthly and good performance in terms of returns determines if you will be retained on the post or substituted. Postings are also negotiated, meaning that better personnel (at his job of security) may be sidelined for important duties of security on the altar of road “peanuts”. But in order to get the extras to their salaries, the policeman told me that they had to hustle on the road to ensure that the boss is happy so as to retain them. This explains why it is important they make money at all cost, a probable reason to explain extrajudicial killings owing to the refusal of motorists to part with demanded money.

Police patrol teams occupy portions of our roads which I call “Potholes of corruption”. On the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, you will find them at extortion spots–the bad portion of the roads and within town.

They have devised strategies to further socialise young children to the culture of extortion. That is why you see child hawkers collecting money on their behalf. Motorists tuck money inside their vehicle papers and sometimes through “handshake”, handover money. But what do their superiors do with allocation to maintain patrol vehicles? They dare not ask! There is therefore the need for the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, to monitor how allocations are released and utilised. With growing insecurity, police corruption must not be allowed. No trust can be built when civilians see themselves as victims of police extortion. Nigeria and Nigerians collectively suffer insecurity because our lives are unfortunately for sale by those posted, not to secure lives and properties, but pad their pockets and their corrupt superiors.

• Dr Tade, a sociologist, wrote in from the Department of Sociology, University of Ibadan, via dotad2003@yahoo.com

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