By Umar Bayo Abdulwahab
Ilorin
The Nigeria Police Force yesterday warned that henceforth erring police operatives who made the force to incur a court order following cases of human rights violations will be made to pay for it from their wages.
The force particularly warned against indiscriminate arrest, long detention and extortion of suspects.
The Assistant Inspector General of Police Zone 8, comprising Kwara,Kogi and Ekiti, states, Tanko Lawal, handed down the warning while addressing officers and men of the Kwara state police command at the state police headquarters in Ilorin.
The AIG was in the state on inspection tour of commands under his zone.
“We (Police) have had course to spend so much on cases of garnishee orders. We have been warned, if you let the police incur garnishee, you will pay for it”, he said.
The AIG, who admonished police men to respect human rights of people by eschewing all forms of Illegal arrest and detention, said the police don’t have to make arrest before they could investigate all cases.
“There are cases that you don’t have to arrest before you investigate, you can do without arresting and gather all necessary facts for prosecution”, Lawal said.
He, however, acknowledged that investigations could not be concluded within 24 hours, which suspects were supposed to be detained, the AIG said in such cases, suspects should be granted bail or charged to court.
“In achieving this, the AIG said, every policeman should step up the culture of intelligence-led policing by building confidence in members of the public and promoting inter- agency synergy with sister security agencies to succeed in fighting crimes.
“When you are good to members of the public, that is when they will give you useful information”, he added.
Lawal charged officers and men of the police force to key into President Muhamadu Buhari’s policy of zero tolerance for corruption policy as well as that of the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Solomon Arase or be arrested and thrown out of the service.
“The wind of change is blowing all over the place, from the Presidency to all facets of work and the Nigeria police cannot be an exception. If you are corrupt, you either think twice or you will be arrested and kicked out of the service”, Lawal said.
The AIG said the police had identified that the issue of road blocks, long detention and cases of human right abuses committed by its operatives have soured its relationship with members of the public.
“Road block is gone and is gone forever, that is where we have problems with members of the public. From the zone, we are monitoring all state commands on the implementation of the policy on road blocks. The road blocks are gone and are gone forever and they have been replaced with safer highway vehicles”, he said.
The police boss, who said he observed a compliance of the order on his way from Lokoja to Ilorin, however added that some policemen on the safer highway vehicle on that route were “corrected” urging members of the public to always take advantage of the phone numbers on the vehicles to call erring policemen to order.
