Yomi Shogunle is an Assistant Commissioner Of Police in charge of the Police Complaint Commission. Despite the cries of many Nigerians on the escalating rate of extortion and unlawful actions by his officers, rather than look objectively at the allegations of unlawful behaviour, he has consistently claimed the allegations are false and fabricated.
However, what is most shocking is that the Complaints Commission which he heads is used as propaganda for the police and cannot be said to have been succesful in eradicating or limiting the cases of gross indiscipline by the police.
Recently,on the 12th of July, 2018, one Mr. Emmanuel contacted the Legalnaija Blawg and explained how he had been extorted of the sum of 100,000 Naira by officers of the Nigerian Police. Like a responsible citizen, Mr. Emmanuel contacted the helpline of the Police Complaints Commission but he was reffered to the Whatsapp Number of the Commission, on engagement with the Whatsapp account, he was further redirected to the helpline. Up till now, Mr Emmanuel has been unable to lodge his complaint.
The above experience is proof that the Police Complaints Commission is not an effective tool in resolving complaints against the Police. The statistics shown in the graph below also depicts one important reason why police extortion is on the rise. We have therefore come up with this series of questions to test the credibility of the police complaints commission.
If 5,927 cases were resolved,
1. How come only 10 officers were dismissed during the period under review?
2. How come only 2 officers were suspended during the period under review?
3. How come only 64 officers were awarded other punishments under the period in review?
4. How come only 4 officers were reduced in rank during the period under review?
5. How many officers have been prosecuted and jailed for participating in the extortion of citizens?
6. Out of the 87,600 calls received, how come only 5,175 were processed?
7. Is there any form of sensitization in the over 1300 Police Stations on human right treatments and extortion.
8. How are police stations run, are there any monies given to each station for running operations or is each station supposed to source for its own funds?
9. Out of the over 1800 cases of financial requests for bail, what punishments, if any, were given to officers who demanded bail.
10. What are the profiling and investigative techniques used by the police when they identify young Nigerians as fraudsters.
Answers to these questions will reveal to everyone if the Police Complaint Commission in itself is a sham.