• Home
  • Anti-Corruption
  • Fact-Check
  • Economy
  • National
    • Government
  • Security
  • Features
  • State
  • Event
Sign in
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Password recovery
Recover your password
Search
  • Home
  • About
  • Adverts
  • Contact
Sign in
Welcome! Log into your account
Forgot your password? Get help
Password recovery
Recover your password
A password will be e-mailed to you.
PRNIGERIA PRNigeria News
PRNIGERIA PRNIGERIA
  • Home
  • Anti-Corruption
    • Why we Support Anti-corruption Projects – Foundation

      Steve Oronsaye

      EFCC to Appeal Oronsaye’s Acquittal in Alleged N2bn Fraud

      Peter Afunanya DSS Spokesperson

      UPDATE: DSS, EFCC to Broker ‘Ceasefire’ Over Tussle for Lagos Property

      DSS Boss Magaji Bichi and EFCC Boss Abdulrasheed Bawa

      24 Hours After Tinubu’s Inauguration, DSS, EFCC Reignite Inter-Agency Rivalry

      Chairman EFCC Abdulrasheed Bawa

      Matawalle’s $2m Bribe Hoax: EFCC Will Not Bandy Words with Suspect

  • Fact-Check
  • Economy
    • Hammed Ibrahim Ali Customs Boss

      Nigeria Customs Service Initiates Fast Track 2.0 For Rewarding Compliance

      Fuel Subsidy: Mixed Reactions as Long Queues Return to Filling Stations

      French, Kwara Sign MoU on Knowledge Transfer, Livestock Development

      President Buhari Assents to NDIC, Three Other Bills

      Buhari Swears in Ismail Agaka, Six Others as Federal Revenue Commissioners

  • National
    • Hajj Zikirullah Olakunle Hassan NAHCON Chairman

      Hajj 2023: NAHCON Secures 58,000 Visas, Airlifts 36,841 Pilgrims to Saudi…

      RIPAN President Abubakar Maifata and Deputy Paul Eluhaiwe

      RIPAN Knocks Saboteurs Behind Border Re-Opening Video, Cautions FG

      HAJJ Pilgrims pilgrimage NAHCON

      Hajj 2023: NAHCON Completes 85 Flights with 35,817 Pilgrims in Two…

      NYSC DG Seeks Staff Support to Actualize ‘Policy Thrust’

      Hajj Zikirullah Olakunle Hassan NAHCON Chairman

      You can’t Stay in Madinah Beyond Five Days – NAHCON Tells…

    • Government
      • Akume lauds North Central Governors for Solidarity Visit

        Tinubu Inaugurates Akume as 21st Secretary to Government of Federation 

        President Bola Ahmed Tinubu

        President Tinubu commiserates with India over deadly Train Crash

        HAJJ Pilgrims pilgrimage NAHCON

        Hajj 2023: NAHCON Completes 45 Flights with 18,703 Pilgrims in Eight…

        PHOTOS: Vice President Shettima Commissions NASS Mosque

  • Security
    • General Chibuisi Gold of MNJTF In Mallam Fatori, Diffa

      Counter-Terrorism: MNJTF Commander Storms Mallam-Fatori, Diffa on Operational Tours

      Nigerian Military Troops

      Nigerian Military Kills 7 Bandits, Set Ablaze 2 Motorcycles in Zamfara

      NDLEA Denies Reports of Lopsided Promotions

      Navy, Turkish Firm ink MoU on Maritime Security, Ship Remodeling

      Court Reprimands NSCDC over Attack on Erasmus Ikhide 8 Years ago

  • Features
    • Rebuilding and repositioning Nigeria’s Armed Forces: The 2015-2023 journey

      The Chairman of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), Alhaji Zikrullah Kunle Hassan (M), flanked by members of the National Media Team (NMT) for the 2023 pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia.

      Hajj 2023: NAHCON’s Strategic Media Engagement for Responsible Reporting, by Abdulrahman…

      Fredrick Nwabufo of Journalists for United Nigeria (JUN)

      When preparation meets leadership, Tinubu happens, by Fredrick Nwabufo

      President Bola Ahmed Tinubu

      Still on the Person Needed for Tinubu’s NSA By Segun Olugbile

      Senator Barau’s Antecedents for 10th Deputy Senate Presidency

  • State
    • Niger State Governor, Mohammed Umaru Bago,

      Bago Visits Service Chiefs, Seeks Collaboration to Tackle Niger’s Insecurity

      Gov Abdulrahaman abdulrazak of Kwara

      Kwara Reduces Workdays over Petrol Subsidy Removal

      SPECIAL REPORT: Sorrow and Blood; Dehumanizing Tales of ‘Phone Snatching’ in…

      Late sultan ibrahim Dasuki

      After 26 Years, Sokoto Govt Clears late Sultan Dasuki, Approves Benefits…

      Gov Wike Constructs Police Tactical Operations Centre

  • Event
    • Nafisat Bello, Fom Gyem, Rahma Oladosu and Mrs Yushau Shuaib

      TRAVELOGUE PHOTOS: The Emotional Rollercoaster to APRA 2023 in Lusaka

      Gen Samuel Adebayo CDI

      CDI Adebayo, Other Senior Military Officers Bag National Honours

      Badejo-Okusanya Bows Out as APRA President After 7 Years

      DG NITDA Bags Honorary Doctorate from California Metropolitan University

      APRA 2023 Conference: Zambia President Urges PR Practitioners to Project Good…

Home Features Brutalized Policewoman, Overstretched Military and Matters Arising
  • Features
  • Security

Brutalized Policewoman, Overstretched Military and Matters Arising

By
Chidi Omeje
-
September 24, 2022
Nigeria Police Force Logo
Nigeria Police Force Logo

Brutalized Policewoman, Overstretched Military and Matters Arising

By Chidi Omeje

Nigerians woke up Thursday morning to a grisly picture splashed on the social media of a battered female personnel of the Nigeria Police Force drenched in the pool of her own blood.

The vexatious story behind the ghastly picture was that the Policewoman was brutalized to a point of near-death, reportedly by a female professor she was attached to as an orderly or for whatever role. The lady professor who was later identified as Zainab Duke Abiola, according to the story, procured the assistance of her other aides to physically assault the police officer for yet to be disclosed reasons.

In spite of the largely unresolved schism between young Nigerians who populate the social media space and the Nigerian Police, the outrage that greeted the report was palpable and spontaneous. Many called for the immediate arrest and prosecution of the killer-professor and her gang and many more questioned, and in fact, expressed even more outrage over the continuous objectification and merchantilisation of police personnel in the name of VIP protection.

Following the instantaneous outrage of Nigerians, the authorities of the Nigeria Police issued a statement indicating that the Inspector General of Police condemned the attack on the officer and had directed the immediate arrest and prosecution of the suspects. The statement went further to profile the principal suspect as “Professor Zainab Duke Abiola…an Mbaise born activist based in Abuja”. The reason for such ethnic profiling of the suspect in an official press statement is yet to be ascertained but many commentators were of the view that it was grossly pedestrian, unprofessional and antithetical to exigency of conflict-sensitive communication, at a time like this. That will be story for another day.

What the Police press statement did not address, however, was its position on the vexatious issue of deploying police personnel to protect private individuals. It is a common sight across the country to behold gallant-looking officers in well-starched Mobile Police uniform carrying hand bags and umbrellas for moneybags, entertainers, politicians, their wives or side-chicks, all in the name of VIP protection.

In fact, available records have it that a whopping over 70% of the entire personnel of the Nigeria Police Force are deployed to the so-called VIP protection, leaving a paltry 30% to perform core police duties; a reason why the streets and communities grossly under policed, ungoverned spaces are increasing and crime and criminalities are flourishing across the country.
Ordinarily, the Nigeria Police is the lead agency in the tackling of internal security challenges. In other words, they ought to be the first responders to any insecurity that assails the country internally, and it is only when the challenge is such that is beyond their capacity to deal with that the military is called in.

To boost this policing effort, the system created the secret police otherwise known as the State Security Services with statutory responsibility of detecting and preventing threats and crimes that could imperil the state. There’s also the Civil Defence established to compliment the efforts of the Police.

But what is the situation today? They have abdicated this first responder responsibility and conveniently taken the back seat, and are more less interested in VIP protection.

The situation is that not only has the Armed Forces become the first responders to security infractions, they are involved in the battling of almost every crime in the books in Nigeria today. The military are deployed to wage war against terrorists and insurgents, they deal with bandits, they are primed to man elections; they are arrayed to chase armed robbers, stop cultists and confront kidnappers; they are deployed to quell protests and even to chase street hawkers around! Not even their remarkably low numerical strength for a country of over two hundred million diverse and restive people has compelled a second thought on the over-reliance on the military. As we write, troops of the Nigerian military are currently deployed to 36 out of the 36 states of the federation and the FCT to do the work that are mostly their primary responsibility.

So, apart from the fact that this over-stretching of the military through over-reliance on them for every security challenge rubs off negatively on their professionalism, it actually disposes the civil space to gratuitous culture of militarism and militarization.

This anomaly in our policing system signposts the ineffectiveness (in fact, outright faultiness) of our national internal security operations strategy, and as long we continue to prevaricate in taking drastic and decisive action to re-gig the architecture, we will continue to grope in the dark and post abysmal scorecard in the effort to tackle the degenerating security situation in the country.
The fact really is that our police needs redemption. It needs reformation and it need restoration (of its past glory). We must restore the fear factor and respect that our police once had. As we say in local parlance, it is the see finish that will make an ordinary citizen like Prof Zainab to raise her hand on a police officer and brutalize her. But police authorities must lead the charge in this restoration movement.

If they don’t sell their personnel kobo kobo to any fellow with means and who is connected or willing to procure the services of police protection, perhaps we would not be treated to the gory sight of police humiliation.
A point was however made very clear in that report of attack on the policewoman, and that is the fact that Nigerians genuinely care and respect their Police. The spontaneity and unanimity of their condemnation of the assault on the officer and solidarity with the Police, was as heartening as it was reassuring.

It simply means that they understood the indispensability of the Nigerian Police in a functional, progressive Nigeria where law and order must prevail. They understood that the police are indeed central to an organised society which Nigeria.
It is now left to the Government and of course the authorities of the Nigeria Police Force to make with that realization whatever they would.

Chidi Omeje is the Editor-in-Chief of Security Digest (www.securitydigestng.com)

buy guest posting services

Kidnapped School Children

Yauri FGC Students, Kebbi (Freed)
The last victims released spent 707 days from June 17, 2021 - May 25, 2023


Baptist School Students, Kaduna
704 days 9 hours 14 minutes 58 seconds

Tegina Islamiya Pupils, Niger (Freed)
Spent 88 days from May 30, 2021 - August 26, 2021


Report By: PRNigeria.com

 
VISIT OUR OTHER WEBSITES
PRNigeria.com EconomicConfidential.com PRNigeria.com/Hausa
EmergencyDigest.com PoliticsDigest.ng TechDigest.ng
HealthDigest.ng SpokesPersonsdigest.com TeensDigest.ng
ArewaAgenda.com Hausa.ArewaAgenda.com YAShuaib.com
  • TAGS
  • Military
  • police
  • Security
Previous articleNigerian Army Bags Overall Winner at Armed Forces Sports Competition
Next articleTurji Blows Hot Over Military Raid, Says He is Ready for Peace or War
Chidi Omeje

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

Hajj Zikirullah Olakunle Hassan NAHCON Chairman

Hajj 2023: NAHCON Secures 58,000 Visas, Airlifts 36,841 Pilgrims to Saudi Arabia

RIPAN President Abubakar Maifata and Deputy Paul Eluhaiwe

RIPAN Knocks Saboteurs Behind Border Re-Opening Video, Cautions FG

Rebuilding and repositioning Nigeria’s Armed Forces: The 2015-2023 journey

HAJJ Pilgrims pilgrimage NAHCON

Hajj 2023: NAHCON Completes 85 Flights with 35,817 Pilgrims in Two Weeks

Akume lauds North Central Governors for Solidarity Visit

NYSC DG Seeks Staff Support to Actualize ‘Policy Thrust’

Hajj Zikirullah Olakunle Hassan NAHCON Chairman

You can’t Stay in Madinah Beyond Five Days – NAHCON Tells Pilgrims

HAJJ Pilgrims pilgrimage NAHCON

Hajj 2023: NAHCON Completes 80 Flights with 33,818 Pilgrims in 13 Days

General Chibuisi Gold of MNJTF In Mallam Fatori, Diffa

Counter-Terrorism: MNJTF Commander Storms Mallam-Fatori, Diffa on Operational Tours

Fact-Check: Did President Tinubu Reopen Idiroko’s Border

The Chairman of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), Alhaji Zikrullah Kunle Hassan (M), flanked by members of the National Media Team (NMT) for the 2023 pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia.

Hajj 2023: NAHCON’s Strategic Media Engagement for Responsible Reporting, by Abdulrahman Abdulraheem

Tinubu Inaugurates Akume as 21st Secretary to Government of Federation 

  • Home
  • About
  • Adverts
  • Contact
© 2020 PRNigeria. All Rights Reserved.
X whatsapp