100,000 police officers carry handbags for wives of moneybags and politicians

The PSC chairman say only a few of these are left to police the entire country

Over 100,000 out of the 330,000 police officers in Nigeria are attached to “few fortunate” individuals – to carry handbags for their wives, chairman of Police Service Commission has revealed.

The chairman, Police Service Commission (PSC), DIG Parry Osayande (rtd), made the revelation on Tuesday while addressing the Senate Committee on Police Affairs.

He said that it was regrettable that only 230,000 policemen were left to police 150 million Nigerians. on countless instances in the past, former Inspector General of police have made fruitless policy statements threatening the withdrawal of police officers from such duties.

The chairman said that he had made it clear on several occasions that a special force be trained to serve as guards, because the use of policemen for as personal aides and guards has become a status symbol in the country.

He said that the police required “surgical operation” – overwhelming reforms – for Nigeria to get the policing it deserved.

Mr. Osayande noted that even though government had commenced the reform of the police through the implementation of the government’s White Paper on the MD Yusufu Presidential Committee, not much of its impact had been seen.

On the factors militating against the force, the chairman named misuse, misapplication of available resources and lack of accountability through award of bogus contracts and outright diversion and misappropriation of the meagre resources.

Also, he attributed failure to plan and lack of vision as some of the problems confronting the force.

The chairman disclosed that corruption seemed to have been institutionalised in the force, as some of the officers and men who engaged in the practice had been found to collude with and, sometimes, shield criminals, rather than prevent crimes.

Some policemen, according to him, had been found to facilitate the escape of criminals from lawful custody, obtain money from suspects for closure of case files or to derail the cause of justice, escort contraband, steal from suspects and accident victims and supply police weapons and uniforms to criminals.

Curled from Tribune