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Politicians, not police, rig
election in Nigeria – Osayande
From ERIC OSAGIE, Abuja
Sunday, November 1, 2009
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•Osayande
•Photo: Sun News Publishing |
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Chairman, Police Service Commission (PSC) Parry Osayande, a retired Deputy Inspector-General of Police (DIG) does not believe that the police are the primary agents of rigging during elections.
The top cop defended his constituency spiritedly insisting that the architect of rigging and the executors are actually the politicians. The reputable crime-buster, who is credited with the arrest and prosecution of the notorious Edo robbery kingpin, Lawrence Anini speaks on a wide range of issues.
Excerpts…
How has it been since you assumed office as Police Service Commission chairman?
We came here to meet challenges because, as I have always told people who have asked me similar questions, the Police Service Commission is a constitutional body. It’s one of the 13 or 14 bodies set up by the 1999 Constitution to oversee the functions of the police. During the military incursion into governance in this country, the constitution was suspended along with all the bodies it created, even the National Assembly and the Police Service Commission was no exception.
In the absence of a commission, there was nobody to control the activities of the police. As I’ve always said, they started expanding in various directions uncontrolled and unplanned for. About a year or two ago, Mr. President asked the IG to recruit 40,000 police officers per annum when the training institutions have not been expanded to cope with such large number. In the process, a lot of dregs were recruited into the place and there was no means of screening them properly. We had all sorts of characters, which came to complicate the problems of the police on the ground.
Can we say the suspension of the commission messed up the police structure in the country?
It did to incalculable extent, because in areas of the quality of manpower, in area of discipline, they were accused of unlawful exercise of authority, extra judicial killings, even rape, high handedness, corruption and, of course, they were not given proper training as they should to move with time.
The challenges must be enormous now that you have corruption and extra judicial killings.
How are you grappling with all those and where are you starting from?
The Commission has a strategic plan. But they are based on certain assumptions, which the government is addressing. One is the police that had not been properly paid. We should now get good pay. Yar’Adua in his magnanimity when he came in, raised the police pay from N8,000 to N28,000. It’s not adequate, but it has helped to alleviate the sufferings the police.
So, the average policeman earns N28,000 net of tax?
They will still tax it.
Can his take home pay take him anywhere near his home?
Well, it’s operational within the economy, but it’s far from being sufficient. We assume that when you have policemen, you will make life a decent one. You build good barracks for the police. The reason for building them barracks is to be able to engage their services as and when the occasion demands it. You know they are living in shanties. They are in squalor and for years, nobody built any barracks.
The ones they built were colonial in nature. If you want to see any cities that are defaced, just go to the barracks. So, assume that the present administration is going to build decent accommodation where policemen will be properly housed and they will be given some measure of respect. They can grow flowers around their place and be proud enough to invite their friends to come and visit them in barracks. It’s not what it is now.
We assume that government will also provide the wherewithal for them to do their duties.
You know there was time if somebody had a complaint, policemen would ask him to produce money to buy statement papers and all of that. It was as bad as that. And this was what successive governments saw in this country. It was almost a violation of the Constitution where if you go to the preamble, it says that the primary purpose of government is the preservation of lives and properties. They defied what was enacted there and under-funded the police to a point of criminality.
Is it under the military that this happened?
They did it. They had their own agenda. I will give you an instance. There was a time we said our rioters are not antelopes. Why do we use live ammunition to go and quell riots? In the days of Sunday Adeusi, our retired Inspector General of Police, we bought riot equipment to use water canon to disperse crowd. When the military came to power, they seized them from the police and they rotted away behind their backyards. That was the extent to which the police was derided.
We were starved. I was telling somebody the other day that I made a personal research from 1980 till the military left power, they only gave two percent of the police budget for training. So, how can you make any start in the race without training? It was a pittance. No training infrastructure. It was not backed up by any teaching aids and then we had stopped taking people outside the country to go and interact at global platform with other police forces.
But you were still performing well in outside functions. What were you then using?
The old timers were still there and very resilient. If we went out, we were better equipped than we are at home and you see the excellence in us. I remember I went to Namibia in 1990 to go and see our force there when the South African government was going to hand over Namibia to the people when President Sam Nujoma had won the election. Nyang Fleming who was the Commander of the Civil Police Organisation made up of policemen from 42 countries adjudged the Nigerian Police as the best performing police organisation.
When I visited Sam Nujoma in his house, he made a request to me and said your people are going. All the civil police are going. Can you prevail on your government to allow members of the Nigerian police to wait for another three months to help kick-start our activities for the police? I said this is a very difficult assignment. I wrote a memo to the then President, Ibrahim Babangida that this is the position. The only way we can vouch for the good conduct of our policemen for the three months that they were going to be there was to maintain salaries and allowances given by the United Nations.
As at that time, the UNO was paying every policeman a flat rate of $2,500 a month. Go and multiply it by the exchange rate now and see what that will amount to in Nigeria. It was two and half persons to a vehicle. Now, there are 774 Local Governments in Nigeria. You come from a Local Government today. But go and visualize how many police vehicles you have in your Local Government. If for instance the Federal Government buys 300 vehicles for the police, they will say they have bought vehicles. How do you now share 300 vehicles to 774 Local Governments? One of the most expensive ventures ever undertaken by any government is security. Most of the other countries don’t play with it.
You give them uniforms. You give them good housing. Then you give them transportation and communications. Up till now, we haven’t got forensic science laboratories. When we started, we had one at Oshodi. But because of poor funding, the man was frustrated and he left. I remember one Dr. Okwu. He later became a Professor in America and he only died about two years ago.
In essence, this is not the police you joined?
How can it be?
If this were the police, would you have joined?
There is no way.
So why did you join the police?
We had a common boundary with the Local Government Police and ICC and we used to steal time between our lessons to go and watch the people on parade. That sharpened my interest. Then, my Reverend Father, you know they were very good at assessing people. He would always tell me to go and join the police and that I have detective ability. That was what he used to tell me in those days. This was a Reverend Father from Ireland and of course, maybe because of my height.
So, we joined the police and we have no regrets. As at that time, government made it enviable because we were coming in as Cadets. The salary of Cadets was twice that of somebody who went to other organisation with the same qualification – School Certificate. They were paid £12 and we as Cadet Inspectors were paid £23. We even earned more than the army. I joined the police as a Cadet.
You are remembered for bursting so many crimes, including that of late Lawrence Anini. When you look back now, was that the high point of your career?
I wouldn’t know.
Was that the toughest assignment you got?
There were other tougher ones. It depends on the publicity given by the local press. For instance, I and two officers, we did the Owo riot. I was trying to enjoy my weekend on a Saturday. In those days, we used to work on Saturdays and I was in a place called 760 with my friends. We were drinking and some policemen came to the place at about 1.00am and said sir, you are wanted at the police station. The beers we took had disappeared and then we followed them, only to come and meet three units.
They said you are taking this unit to Owo. There was no Ore road then. They were agitating against then Olowo of Owo, Olagbegi. We got there very early in the morning and they had burnt seventy houses by the time we got there. We were all three young men – Akiyo (ASP) and then there was one man. I understand he’s now late, may his soul rest in peace. He was the District Officer. These were the three people faced with maintenance of law and order. Then we had a hurried meeting. I remember we used to have one expression that officers must die last because you are in command. So, we fortified our radars and it was very bad. Elderly women went round the city naked and then we smuggled the Olowo out of the city in a police vehicle and took him to Akure.
Was that tougher than tracking Anini who was a national embarrassment? How did you come into that case because it was not your case originally?
When there is any case to be investigated, if you like, call it high profile case, you send in people who you think can give you results. It happens in any organization. You look at the commitment of the staff and then you look at the capabilities of the officers. At times, you may run it down from the number one on the list to the last until you get two or three people. I was the Commissioner of Police in Makurdi. I used to get to the office at 7 am in Makurdi.
The IG then was Etim Iyang. He said I want you to come and see now for an urgent matter. That day, there was a heavy thunderstorm. Instead of going to Lagos, we landed in Enugu . When I met the IG, he said we are sending you to Benin. I said what is my mandate. He said go and arrest Anini. We went there and appreciated the situation. There were lots of leakages of information from the center of operation because of corrupt police officers. So, we were fighting the people from two fronts – fighting the internal enemies and the external ones. So, we had to use police to police other policemen while we were now looking for information. It’s always the case in Nigeria.
There are always people who are prepared to cash in on given situation. They will come and deliberately give you wrong information to get money. So, we had to sort of sieve that one out. I remember somebody came and told me that Osunbor and Anini were injured and they were receiving native treatment from a native doctor. We gave them money and everything. Then I planted somebody – a police driver and got a police vehicle painted in taxi colour. Then they were discussing that they were going to eat me to the bone. When they returned, they said we missed him by just two minutes; even there were bloodstains from his wound. We now said okay come. He came to my office and I said go and lock up these two gentlemen.
Before we leave that to other police issues, there was also one high profile case, the George Idah, Oredo local government chairman murdered near his office in Benin . What happened?
He was killed. The case file is still there.
You were about unraveling it and that cost you your Commission.
We unraveled it.
Who killed Idah?
Well, go and find out from the police.
Did you complete the case?
Yes.
Are the killers still alive?
Yes, of course. They know themselves. But the only thing I can say about that is that they shall be oppressed by the burden of truth for the rest of their lives.
But that cost you your Commission, and you were retired because of that?
Yes, I was retired before my time. But when something happens, don’t go and prove your right because one road closes, another one opens.
Did you feel bad that you were retired before your time?
Did you hear me talk? I didn’t say a word because we have a parable in Benin that if something is happening around you and you have people talking for you, you would only be a fool to go and start talking. You keep quiet. I didn’t say a word. The retired Inspector General of Police, Ehindero Sunday was the person who made it possible for me to be Chairman of Police Service Commission because we worked together. He worked with me and when it was time for them to say who are we going to put as the Chairman, he brought two names and the President said this is the man I want. If he didn’t put my name, I won’t be there.
So, it has almost compensated for that?
It’s not compensation. With all humility, I want to say that maybe there are certain people who would have been in a position to do certain things, but for inexplicable reasons, they have shied away from doing so. Who suffers? It’s the public. When I was retired before my time, I went into business and I made some change from it. As at the time I was retired before my time, I was taller than my height by that event.
Crime is on the upward surge in the country.
That is not correct. Where did you get the statistics?
The statistics is not the police statistics. It’s what you see everyday.
Crime is inextricably tied to volume of activities. Don’t just make a straightforward statement. I’m telling you the factors of crime. You have modern technology, you have increase in the volume of work, you have new cities and towns coming up and the increase in population itself. So, you have to relate these. I give you a practical example: if you travel from here to Benin and you come across seven Peugeots involved in an accident on the roadside, but all along you saw only one Volkswagen and when you go further, you see only one Limousine, are you going to conclude that Peugeots are more prone to accidents? We are fighting crime and new ones are coming up.
Take the question of kidnapping. It was not there three years ago but it’s inextricably tied to the modern technology of mobile phone because as I told somebody the other day, mobile phone is not only an object of crime, it’s a means of communication. So, if you come and kidnap me and you have no discreet way of communicating with those people, it will not be possible. The police itself have done very well. You will agree that the incident of armed robbery has abated. If criminals see that a place is too hot for them, they go and devise other means and do other things. If you are talking of crime, I can tell you that in America, one murder is committed every minute. But that is not a measure because we are not the same population; we haven’t got the same volume of industries, their background and other things.
When you are talking of increase in crime, what of unemployment? When we were talking of economic meltdown, the first thing they did in America, Britain and Germany was to try and create jobs to put food on the table. They told us in America that three million people are unemployed. Do we know how many unemployed people we have? Even the women and those hawkers, they constitute the army of unemployed. The groundnuts a woman is selling with a tray are not up to N1,000. So, unemployment is all over the whole place.
The image of the police today is bad because the ordinary Nigerian does not trust the police.
That’s what I was telling you about those glorious days when the Nigerian police was the pride of the country. But I told you that when the military came, the first thing they did was to suspend the Constitution.
They brought the Inspector General of Police under the direct command of the military President or military Head of State. I think it was Prof. Tamuno who described that the police were used as agents of oppression because the military rules by force. If you don’t obey, they will say alright, go and detain him. So, you find that the IG was a member of the Supreme Military Council, which was not right. They just kept him there. All the decisions they took, they had taken it at home in their private sitting room before coming there. So, he had no say whatsoever.
When they now used them to arrest the people, what do you expect? They got the police estranged from the people they were supposed to protect. This thing went on for upwards of three decades. But now, this commission is on a repair mission. To normalize the defects will take time. But we have our strategies in place. We are going to resort to training and retraining.
We are going to try and press for enhanced salaries. We will try to minimize incidents of corruption. I can’t say eradicate because it’s not possible. Then, we will now try and give them the wherewithal to perform and we apply natural sciences to detect all forms of cases. As a matter of fact, detention is the last resort. We should prevent as they do in medicine. If we are able to prevent, then the question of detention will not arise. When I say we are applying natural sciences, it’s not a question of when somebody commits an offence and you take him as a suspect, it’s no longer sufficient to say where were you last night.
When two bodies meet, there is exchange of particles. If you have been here, by the time you leave here and we bring scientists to come and verify, they will get fibers from the location, which will tally with what you are wearing. Then, the question now is if you didn’t come here, how did your fabrics develop wings to come here. That is the essence of having science laboratory.
As Chairman of the Police Service Commission, what are your views on State Police?
Ideally, we should have Federal, State and Local Government Police. But at the moment, you have a very weak political structure. Therefore, one single police at this moment in time serves as agent of unity. In fact, the Nigerian police have on a number of occasions welded this country together at the brink of collapse. When one of the coups happened, the police headquarters at Moloney Street became the headquarters for the whole country. Everybody operated from there.
But they have also been used to rig elections.
That’s a fallacy. The architect of rigging and the executor of rigging and those who actually rig are the politicians. They don’t use the police. The police in any election have a mandate to protect electoral materials and to protect lives and properties. The police are not involved in rigging. When they were making electoral reforms and they wanted to change certain laws, somebody in the National Assembly was trying to say that the police should provide security for everybody.
Then he went on to say that they should provide security for those seeking elective post. But that was superfluous. Once we are providing security for everybody, why do we have to single them out again. What we have always said is you give a mandate and we will follow with discipline. Tell us our functions and once we finish, we cannot go beyond this mandate. Now we come to discipline in the force.
Some officers were elevated but your Commission brought them to where it felt they should be and that became controversial.
It’s not controversial. With due respect, it’s subjudice. The Police Service Commission has a mandate. This mandate is given to it by the supreme law of the land and that is the 1999 Constitution, that we are responsible for appointment, for promotion and discipline of all officers from the rank of constable to that of Deputy Inspector General of Police. As Chairman of the Police Service Commission, you are also a member of the Police Council and the Police Council is made of the President as the Chairman, all the governors of the Federating States, the Chairman of the PSC and the Inspector General himself. Police Council is responsible for the administration of the police. They decide on what uniforms to wear and other high policy matters.
So, the decision you took, you don’t see it as controversial?
What is controversial there? The Constitution gave us that responsibility. Any other person who does it, if he’s an elected official, it’s an impeachable offence because he has breached the Constitution. You made it controversial because you wanted to make it controversial. But there was nothing controversial there. All the people we demoted were beneficiaries of an illegal act. If you go and save your money and you go and buy a stolen car, what happens when the owner of the car comes? He takes his car and then you lose your money.
When you are not thinking about police, what else do you do in your spare time?
I play gulf. That is a continuous something and I’m always reading. My wife once told my doctor I do not rest and that even if I have nothing to read, I can read toilet papers. It’s just a habit.
What are the things you used to do as a young man that you can no longer do?
I’m respecting age. If you are a responsible gentleman, you must learn to succumb to years. I used to play football and lot of things that you are doing now. Nobody advises you. Withdrawal is automatic and systematic. A stage will come and you will withdraw. In those days, if by 7.pm I’ve not taken my bath and I’m still sitting, my wife will come and drop some money because she knows that I’m broke. Then I will say who needs your money. But before she comes, I would have gone with the money.
In another world, would you like to be a policeman when you look back?
If I were given the opportunity, I would have given my children police training because the policeman sees many things from one situation you don’t see. I’ve always given people test and they always fail it. But policemen don’t fail it. Look at this watch and see whether you will see the date written on it.
I can’t see the date
It’s because you need glasses. What would have happened is that if I told anybody who is not a policeman, he will see the date and tell me the date. Then I will ask him further questions and he will fail them. I will now ask him what time is it and he will not know because he will now want to reach for his time. I will say what is the make of the watch. What I did is called frame of reference. As big as you are and as intelligent, I’ve been able to direct your mind to one particular spot here and then you forget. But the policeman tries to observe. When a vehicle passes on the road, he knows the number, he knows the make of car and he knows the colour. It’s by training and not by natural something.
The Senate President, David Mark advocated for military training. Now you are saying police is the best training. Which is better?
You can never know which is more delicious between Amala and Eba unless you have eaten the two. David Mark has always gone to the military and I’ve been in the police. So, we are about to draw parallel lines.
Which means that if there is anything like another world, you will still come back as a police officer?
Of course. But why are you talking of another world when we have not finished this.
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