The Public Complaint Rapid Response Unit (PCRRU) of the Nigerian Police force, in the 4th quarter of 2016, received and resolved 636 cases of professional misconduct, PCRRU reported against officers nationwide between October and December, 2016.
Also, Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris has directed the demotion of a Police Sergeant serving in the Federal Capital Territory, to the rank of Corporal, having been found wanting in a cases of extortion.
Assistant Commissioner of Police, Abayomi Shogunle who made the disclosure in the 4th quarterly report of the Public Complaint Rapid Response Unit (PCRRU) for 2016, noted that eight other officers received varying degree of sanctions due to complaints made to the Unit.
He said, “Police officers captured in recent viral online videos alleged of misconduct have been identified; apprehended and required departmental actions are ongoing”.
Giving a breakdown of issues of alleged misconduct against Police officers, Shogunle said, “In the fourth quarter of 2016, a total number of 822 complaints were reported from across the federation with Lagos State Command maintaining top on the chart with 153 cases representing 18.62%.
“FCT and Rivers Command closely followed Lagos with total number of 130 and 116 cases respectively.
He said Kebbi State command which has recorded no single case since inception of the Unit and Jigawa State commands remained at the bottom with no case reported against them while Taraba and Katsina state commands recorded one case each in the period under review.
The report also revealed that 156 out of the reported cases were found to be false which is the highest number of false cases so far recorded as against 96 in Q1, 35 in Q2 and 51 in Q3.
“30 out of the reported cases are still under investigation just as phone calls top channels of public report to the unit with 591 calls” ACP Shogunle added.
ACP Shogunle in the statement also disclosed that the Inspector-General of Police has instituted a reward mechanism to reward State Police Commands with zero case of police professional misconduct.
He said that to support the “Change Begins with Me” initiative of the Federal Government, the IGP has mandated the PCRRU to also attend to complaints of abuse of office/corrupt practices involving public/civil servant at all levels of government.
He noted that the unit’s call centre at Force Headquarters, Abuja is being upgraded to meet up with the added task.
“Other activities of the unit in the period under review include distribution of PCRRU information flyers in English and local languages to all 774 Local Government Areas which was led by the IGP himself, and nationwide grass root sensitization campaign by Command Commissioners of Police (CP) and Divisional Police Officers (DPO).
It would be recalled that the Police authority had established the PCRRU to enable aggrieved members of the public reach out to the authority through 24hrs interactive PCRRU platforms – Phone Call, SMS, WhatsApp, BBM, Twitter, Face book and E-mail, to seek redress in cases of alleged police professional misconduct. The PCRRU is one-of-a-kind in Africa.
Members of the public can reach the Unit via- Calls Only: 0805 700 0001, 0805 700 0002 | SMS and WhatsApp Only: 0805 700 0003 | BBM: 58A2B5DE Twitter: @ PoliceNG_PCRRU|Facebook: www.facebook.com/PolicePCRRU | Email: [email protected] OR [email protected] | Website: www.npf.gov.ng/complaint
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