- Safiu Kehinde
The Nigerian Police Force Public Relations Officer, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, says extortion and harassment are never part of the ethics guiding officials of the Force.
The Police Spokesperson made this assertion following a post by a curious X user on Sunday who asked if it is part of the police training for officers to bribes and extort motorists.
Reacting to the post through his X handle, Adejobi said police officers are trained to be good, descent, and trustworthy as against extortion and harassment of citizens.
He noted that extortion and harassment by some officers as observed by motorists are personal and not systemic.
According to him, they are carried out by deviant officers- a situation he claimed is being tackled by the Force.
“No. It’s not part of the training to misbehave or act funny. We train officers the way people train their kids to be good, decent, and trustworthy.
“So if you have some deviants in a pluralistic system like NPF, it’s a personal thing, not systemic. Corruption, extortion, or harassment is never part of the police. Deviants create such, and they are being tackled. Thanks, and be guided.” Adejobi wrote.
In response, another X user, simply identified as ‘grandmaster’ expressed how he has been discouraged from road trip travel to the Southeast where he claimed to be heavily ladened with ‘mindless’ extortions by Police officers.
“A road trip from Abuja to the SE leaves one in awe of the misdemeanors of your men and officers against motorists.The extortion are mindless.
“They are reckless in extorting motorists. Our vehicle dropped money at every check point or you risk being parked for a long time.” He wrote.
Reacting, Adejobi said the Force has addressed the issue on several occasions.
He, however, charged motorists to desist from quickly resorting to bribing the officers when stopped at checkpoints.
Adejobi called for collective effort in curbing the menace of extortion by Police officers.
“We all need to play our role to curb the menace of extortion. This matter has been addressed severally. It’s better to be delayed at their points than to dignify corruption or extortion.
“Why was your vehicle dropping money at every point? Even you, with your comment here, you are educated. What did you do to discourage that, Let’s act wise and be patriotic. Not to just come here and be tagging pricemoye1 or NPF. Thanks.” He wrote