Police Nigeriana
LAGOS EDITION

By Osamudiamen Ogbonmwan

For months on end, one could not just ignore the annoying pres ence of policemen who had transformed the Yaya Abatan junction, along Ogba bus stop into a den of sort.

Every night was the same. From 8p.m, they would mount their post on either side of the road, armed with fierce- looking guns always dangling from their shoulders. About 10 of them, including two army officers terrorise motorists especially motorcyclists popularly known as Okada riders.

Expectedly, their presence at that junction always results in a terrible gridlock.

Sadly, not one person has had the boldness of standing up to challenge them for the menace they constitute at that place. Perhaps, much more surprising is the fact that the Area G Police command office is only a stone's throw away from where this set of men make a nuisance of themselves and the force they represent.

On countless occasions when I had been privileged to have gone through their “post”, it is usually one hell of an experience.

There was a time when the Okada I was on was asked to “park” at a corner. Ordinarily, I would have walked away to a considerable distance in order to get another means of transportation, but on this day I intectively decided to wait with the Okada rider to see (and hear) what the scary-looking Army Officer was going to do. Confidently, he had walked towards us, took a quick look at me and lost interest and then quickly said to the Okada rider, “Pay up! Abi you dey wait make I tell you?.”

“ Oga how much today?” asked the rider.

“You dey craze? How much una suppose to pay everyday? Abi na everytime you want make I dey remind you?,” retorted the Army Officer.

As they spoke, I quickly stole a glance at his name tag and saw that his name was “M. Mohammed”. Judging by the two stripes on his arm, I knew he was corporal in the Nigerian Army.

Grudgingly, the Okada rider gave him N20 and instantly he (corporal M. Mohammed) said, “you be number nine”.

As we drove off that day, I felt disgusted with not only Mohammed and his other uniformed robbers, but also detested the way and manner they go about extorting money from innocent people.

I tell you, till date, these men are still terrorising people on that same road and nothing is being done to stop them.

I had another experience with some other policemen last week. They were mobile policemen numbering about eight, at the Agidingbi road in Ikeja, right beside the Mobil Filling Station opposite Cadbury.

Anyone familiar with that road particularly in the evenings, knows that there is always a heavy traffic jam there.

On this day, it was about seven in the evening when a friend of mine (who was driving) and I made a right turn towards the road beside Mobil Filling station, ostensibly to escape the traffic jam which judging from our vintage position was serious.

Suddenly, a mobile policeman sprang out of the darkness and shouted, “stop! stop! stop!

We did stop, but for no just cause, this cop menacingly pointed his gun at us, and we were so afraid praying silently that there should not be any accidental discharge.

“Park your car,” he ordered again.

We did.

He then continued:

“Why did you make a wrong turn?”

“Sir, we didn't, we were only trying to escape the go-slow," my friend said.

“Show me your particulars,” he demanded.

Quickly, the particulars were all given to him, but he was not satisfied. Instead, he maintained that we had committed an offense by changing lanes the way we did.

After spending about 20minutes with them, (about six cops), the superior of the lot instructed one of the junior officers to enter our car and escort us to the station.

Fear gripped me, I must confess but my friend just remained calm. We had driven not up to half a kilometre before the officer spoke up, saying “ oga , how you go take do am now?”

“I no know o, officer. Na una catch me. Tell me what to do,” my friend replied.

"Okay, give me anything wey come out from your mind,” the cop answered.

“Oga, I no get money here other than N200".

“Ha! N200? No-o-o. Put something join am,” said the cop.

Well, after a little while an agreement was reached and a total of N400 was given to the policeman.

What surprised me most that night was that he (the officer) now insisted that we go back to his superiors with him. This, he said, was because his “ oga ” may not believe that it was N400 that we really gave him.

When we got back to the roadblock, the policeman went to report to his superior. It took about five minutes before he returned and said, “Thank you, you can go now”. With that, we zoomed off into the night, to our destination, with a sad realisation about what our policemen has turned to.