Jonathan Eze
The Monitoring Unit of the Nigeria Police, code-named ‘X’ squad, has arrested 28 policemen and officers for corrupt practices, in different parts of the country, in the last one month.
The ‘x’ squad was specially constituted by the police hierarchy and placed under the direct supervision of the Inpector-General of Police (IG) to check corruption and other vices in the force.
All those arrested were initially detained at Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) Annex, Alagbon, Lagos, but have been moved to the Force Headquarters Annex, Kam Salem House, Obalende.
Spokesman for the FCID, Mr. Friday Archibong, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, told our correspondent, in Lagos, on Wednesday, that most of the officers and men were arrested, while extorting motorists at checkpoints across the country.
He listed some of the states where arrests were made to include, Anambra, Edo, Ogun, Imo and Abia states.
Archibong said those arrested were undergoing orderly-room trial (internal police prosecution), being conducted by the Force Provost Marshal, at Kam Salem House, adding that those found guilty would be dismissed from the police.
He also said the officers among them had been queried and suspended from their duty posts, pending the outcome of investigations.
He disclosed that men of the ‘x’ squad had been carrying out similar operations in other parts of the country since January, adding that its next focus would be Lagos State.
He said the exercise was part of “ongoing efforts to sanitise the police for enhanced performance,” noting that “Divisional Police Officers (DPO’s) across the country had been warned to check the activities of officers and men under their respective commands”.
Commenting on the development, in a separate interview, on Wednesday, the officer-in-charge of ‘x’ squad, Chibuike Okeanonife, an Assistant Commissioner of Police, said the mandate of his section was to curb the excesses of policemen on the nation’s highways.
He noted that the functions of the ‘x’ squad were not limited to the police, but also involved fighting bribery and corruption among other categories of public officers.
He said the act of collecting bribe at checkpoints had not only damaged the image of the police, but also constituted a major source of distraction to policemen that were supposed to be at alert at all times.
His words: “Our operations will be extended to all parts of the country to curb the excesses of policemen on our highways. The acts of taking bribe at checkpoints has done a lot of damage to the force. For instance, if the attention of policemen was not distracted by those offering them bribe on the roads, there was no way kidnappers would ferry their victims past police checkpoints without being challenged.”
He also warned the public against offering policemen bribe at checkpoints, noting that “bribery is a dual offence, which makes both the giver and the receiver liable.”
He added that anyone that was harassed by the police for refusing to offer them bribe should lodge a complaint at the ‘X’ Squad Section, FCID, Alagbon Close, Ikoyi, Lagos.
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