Public Compliant Rapid Response Unit (PCRRU), of the Nigeria Police recently released its report for Q1 2017 with Lagos, Abuja and Rivers topping complaints received against police officers. CHIZOBA OGBECHE presents details of the report
The Public Compliant Rapid Response Unit (PCRRU), of the Nigeria Police Force in continuation of its mandate of receiving and resolving cases of professional misconduct against officers and men of the Force, has said that the unit received the highest number of complaints against its personnel in Lagos, Abuja and Rivers states command.
PCRRU was established in November 2015, with the 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.
Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) in charge of PCRRU, ACP Abayomi Shogunle, in the units report for the first quarter of 2017, January to March, said a total number of 498 cases were received from across the country against officers and men.
The report indicated a 52.8 per cent decrease in number of cases of misconduct reported against Nigerian police officers in 2017 Q1 (498 cases) compared to 2016 Q1 (1,054 cases).
The report further indicated that Lagos state Police Command topped in number of complaints against its police officers with 90 cases representing 18.07 per cent, followed by FCT police command which recorded 69 cases, representing 13.86 per cent while Rivers state recorded 59 cases representing 11.85 per cent.
Kwara and Ekiti Police commands, however, recorded no case during the period while Sokoto, Kebbi, Jigawa, Cross River and Bauchi Police commands recorded one case each.
Similarly, Kebbi state command recorded its first case since the inception of the unit in 2015, the report said.
Excessive use of force, demanding money for bail and professional misconduct topped complaints against officers with Lagos recording 22 complaints on excessive use of force, Abuja 18 and Rivers 10.
The three commands also topped complainants regarding demanding money for bail with 28 reports against Lagos, 33 against Rivers and 10 against Abuja, just as Lagos and Abuja command each had 38 complaints regarding professional misconducts and Rivers had 16 complaints.
According to the report, telephone calls topped the means by which members of the public interacted with the unit as 362 cases representing 73 per cent of total cases reported were received through telephone calls. Over 10,000 phone calls were received from the public during the period under review, however, only 362 phone calls relating to the mandate of the unit were processed, the report said.
“Breakdown of the reporting channels/platforms showed that telephone calls top 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 said.
One of the complaints resolved by the unit included that of a man, whom police in Nyanya Division, FCT, Abuja command helped recover the sum of N560,000, in a case in June 2014 but had difficulty in claiming same since then.
Aboyomi said the money was handed over to him in March 2017, after the issue was reported to the unit, adding that 355 of the cases reported, representing 71 per cent, were successfully resolved and closed while 65 received cases, representing 13 per cent, were found to be false and unrelated and 78 cases, representing 16 per cent, are still pending and being looked into.
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 another alleged extortion along Airport Road, Port-Harcourt, Rivers state, were referred to the Force Criminal Intelligence and Investigation Department (Force CIID), Abuja, for detailed investigations and further necessary action.
The officer-in-charge said as part of sensitisation on activities of the unit, IGP Ibrahim Idris during the IGP’s Conference with Commissioners of Police and above, on February 15, 2017, flagged off the distribution of PCRRU ‘Size A1’ posters to replace the smaller ‘Size A2’ posters at all Police stations nationwide.
He said the PCRRU posters contain information on how the public can reach the unit and are placed at all police buildings where police/citizens contact takes place in Nigeria.
According to him, the Inspector-General of Police charged all Zonal Assistant Inspectors General of Police (AIGs) and Command Commissioners of Police (CPs) to ensure that all forms of corruption are not allowed in their commands and all police officers must key-into the ‘Change Begins With Me’ agenda of the Federal Government.
The report also attributed the successes recorded so far by the unit to the support of the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Ibrahim Idris and 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.
‘’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.
He assured that appropriate disciplinary measures would be meted on officers found wanting in the discharge of their duties.
