The House of Representatives has directed its committee on Police Affairs, to investigate the operations of policemen on highway duties, with a view to seeing them properly dressed.
This came following the adoption of a motion presented on Thursday by Hon. Abdullahi Halims, expressing concerns that men of the Nigeria Police Force usually carry out stop and search exercises on highways to reduce the state of robbery and kidnapping incidents on highways, but that the personnel sometime appeared kitted differently at different checkpoints
He further said that in some cases, the policemen do not wear any means of identification such as name tag, uniform, beret, boots etc which makes it difficult for citizens to identify them, and sometimes mistake them for armed robbers.
According to him, some of the vehicles used on highway patrols are neither painted properly in Nigeria Police colours, nor properly numbered thereby not providing clear means of ascertaining the Police division they belong to.
He said, “Because of this uncertainty, men of the underworld often take advantage of the situation to ambush unsuspecting Nigerians on the highways and rob them of their valuables, inflicting untold fear and suffering and sometimes killing innocent people.
“If proper uniforms with identification tags are made compulsory for Policemen on patrol and their patrol vehicles properly numbered, it would be easier for motorists and other road users to clearly differentiate miscreants from legitimate officers on highway patrol duties.”
