Nigeria Content Online

Isiaka is mild
mannered and soft-spoken man. On his way to work one morning, he was
flagged down by a policeman who asked for a ride. Without hesitation,
he agreed and they set off. The policeman promptly fell asleep, having
apparently been on night duty. At the destination, Isiaka woke him up.
The policeman thanked him profusely and walked off.

The next morning,
Isiaka’s son was washing the car when he saw a pistol under the front
passenger seat and immediately alerted his father. Isiaka came to the
conclusion that it must belong to the policeman who rode in the car the
previous day, so he proceeded to the nearest police station to report
the case.

At the station,
Isiaka was arrested and charged with ‘armed robbery and possession of
firearms’. The policeman he helped had reported that armed robbers had
attacked him and stolen his weapon from him. Despite protests, it took
Isiaka weeks and a lot of money to be released from cell and several
months to clear his name.

Akin, Jimi and
Daniel will never forget what happened to them in their final year at
the university. They had attended a friend’s birthday party and decided
to leave at about 11 pm. There were no taxis or ‘okadas’ at that late
hour so they decided to walk the short distance home. Halfway, they
were accosted by a police patrol and arrested for possession of
marijuana. Despite protestations, they were taken a police station and
pronto, the policemen tendered several wraps of marijuana as exhibits.
The policemen had stuffed the drugs into their pockets. It took their
families huge sums to bribe the DPO to release the students. Several
years after the incident, the bitterness remains.

Alfa is a civil
servant. Some years ago, he decided to travel out of town on
Independence Day. Along the way, he came across a police checkpoint.
The policemen asked for his particulars. Everything was intact except
for his driver’s license, which he didn’t have on him. The policemen
threatened to arrest and detain him unless he gave them money. Once he
did, another policeman emerged from behind a tree and arrested Alfa for
‘bribing a police officer’. He marked the money as ‘exhibit’ and
threatened to take him to arrest and charge him to court. Scared and
disoriented, Alfa was easy prey. The policemen took virtually every
kobo he had before letting him go. Till date, he doesn’t celebrate
Independence Day.

Uche is a
businessman who travels frequently by road. Not too long ago, the
vehicle he was travelling in was involved in an accident. It
somersaulted several times and came to rest in a ditch off the road. It
took some time for help to arrive in form of policemen who were more
interested in going through the pockets and possessions of the dead
passengers. To Uche’s shock, any passenger that showed any sign of life
was quickly finished off by the police. Though seriously injured, he
had the quick thinking to pretend to be dead as the policemen removed
his money, wristwatch and other valuable possessions. It was only at
the hospital, after the police had departed that he groaned for help.
Till date, he has been unable to forget the gruesome and cold blooded
murder of the passengers, who survived the accident, only to fall into
the hands of the Nigeria police supposedly on a rescue mission.

Musa is an
engineer. Some years ago, a group of young men robbed him of his car at
gunpoint. A few weeks later, the car was found abandoned and was
recovered by the police. Eventually too, the armed robbers were traced
and arrested. A few days later, Musa stopped by at the police station
to sort out paperwork about recovering his car. Out of curiosity, he
asked the policemen about the young armed robbers. ‘We don finish them’
came the casual reply. Musa found out later that the young men had been
taken to a bush and asked to run, then shot dead for ‘attempting to
escape police custody’.

The names have been
changed, but the stories are real. Every day, many Nigerians are
subjected to terrifying encounters with the police. Motorists have been
shot for refusing to pay N20 bribes; thousands have been arrested and
detained for no reason; female detainees have been subjected to rape;
many have been robbed outright by the police, or framed for crimes they
did not commit…

The stories cannot be completely told on this page.