Lagos State Police Command came tops with 90 per cent of cases public complaints against police officers bothering on professional misconduct and other abuses against law abiding citizens of the country in the first quarter of 2017, authorities of the Nigerian Police force have said.
The Police Public Complaints Rapid Response Unit (PCRRU) which made the disclosure in Abuja yesterday noted that these 90 cases representing 18.07%, followed by FCT Abuja which had 69 cases, 13.86% and Rivers State 59 cases, 11.85%.
Assistant Commissioner of Police, Abayomi Shogunle in the first quarter report of Complaints against the police stated that, “Kwara and Ekiti Police Commands recorded no case during the period while Sokoto, Kebbi, Jigawa, Cross River and Bauchi Police Commands recorded one case each. Kebbi state Command recorded its first case since the inception of the unit in 2015.
“Similarly, 355 (71%) out of the received cases were successfully resolved/closed while 65 received cases (13%) were found to be false/unrelated and 78 cases (16%) are still pending and being looked into” he said.
Giving a breakdown of the reporting channels/platforms by the citizenry, Shogunle said telephone calls topped the means of citizens’ report to the unit with a total number of 362 cases (73%); WhatsApp 75 cases (15%); eMail 29 cases (6%); Twitter 12 cases (2%); SMS 7 cases (1%); Facebook 4 cases (1%) and 9 cases (2%) from Others – hard copy petition letters, media publications.
“The report also revealed that two separate cases of serious misconduct forwarded by the National Human Rights Commission, Abuja in respect of alleged illegal detention in Delta state and anther alleged extortion along Airport Road, Port-Harcourt, Rivers states were referred to the Force Criminal Intelligence and Investigation Department (Force CIID) Abuja for detailed investigations and further necessary action”.
“The report advised the public to take advantage of the unit to get their cases against police resolved and justice when not satisfied with any Police action rather than resorting to self help”.
‘It said, ‘Members of the Public are advised not to take to self help when they are not satisfied with an encounter with any police officer(s) but contact the PCRRU which is available24/7 for resolution of cases of misconduct and other required actions.
“Such self help by citizens had sometimes escalated the situations and resulted in severe injuries to such person (s) or innocent bystanders; deaths have been recorded in some of such controversial incidents”, ACP Shogunle added, insisting that appropriate disciplinary measures will be meted on any officer found wanting in the discharge of duty” ACP Shogunle noted.
It would be recalled that the Nigeria Police Force in November, 2015 established the unit with a mandate of receiving and resolving cases of professional misconduct against its officers.
IGP Ibrahim Idris, on assumption of duty in 2016, had rebranded and repositioned the unit for effective service delivery.
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