Police, key to crime control

Only recently has a revelation that seemed so harmless at first shaken me to my bone marrow with a primal force that only I can fathom. It began when the Inspector General of Police Mr. Solomon Arase made it known to the public that the Nigeria Police Force has lost about ninety thousand of its […]

Only recently has a revelation that seemed so harmless at first shaken me to my bone marrow with a primal force that only I can fathom. It began when the Inspector General of Police Mr. Solomon Arase made it known to the public that the Nigeria Police Force has lost about ninety thousand of its officers and men during the course of the insurgency.
At first it struck me as one of the usual headlines associated with the negatives of the insurgency. On closer inspection I discovered that the matter was a grievous one going by the current realities of the day.
With a Force of about three hundred and fifty thousand officers that hardly meet up with the United Nations standard of National Police Forces and Police per Head, usually expressed as a ratio of One hundred thousand citizens per the available number of Policemen in the whole Force. Nigeria cannot be said to be sitting pretty in the policing arena based on the ratio we have.
According to reports retrieved on 25th September 2012 from Interpol Nigeria, our Police have about two hundred and five officers (205) to protect one hundred (100,000) thousand citizens. It is not only mind boggling to imagine the sheer impracticability of that, add this to the status quo and wait for this; we now have way below 205 Policemen to look after one hundred thousand of our people.
How do we know this? Simple the Inspector General of Police disclosed to the press recently that ninety thousand of our Police men have perished in the insurgency over time, leaving behind ninety thousand widows and many off springs by implication. The welfare of these widows and dependants is a very serious issue if it has not been attended to already. These survivors of the fallen Policemen are their offshoots; hence any lack of care for these young ones can only spell disaster for the country. Hence the Scholarship Scheme the Police set up for the dependants of the fallen heroes is commendable, what remains to be seen is its correct implementation.
The crux of this matter is the danger Nigerian citizens are facing from being under policed. With about 30% reduction in their number from the insurgency, we are left with only about 144 Police officers to protect the lives and properties of a hundred thousand citizens. Now mix the array of crimes that walk on the streets from this opportunity; crimes like, kidnapping, armed robbery, child and human trafficking, rape and a host of others with the insurgency as the icing on the cake. And you have a very bad recipe.
The alarm this time is the ticking of this keg of gunpowder we are sitting on. If nothing is done urgently by way of replacing the shortfall of manpower in the Police Force and re-strategizing it to meet up with modern challenges, like Insurgency which uses unconventional tactics of warfare and suicide bombing by young girls; the latest which happened in a Yola motor park and a Mobile Phone Market in Kano recently. We will have a whole lot of problems to contend with on a National scale.
Security is a very broad area of human endeavor and touches virtually all aspects of life. From food security, to job security to security of lives and property (the popular one), Marine security and industrial security among others. When security is absent the consequences are very clear as there will be a near collapsed situation and total breakdown of law and order.
In the Criminal Justice Administration in Nigeria, the Police is at the top of the chain. Not being adequately manned leaves a lot to be desired. They make arrests and investigate crimes before handing suspects to the courts for prosecution and onward detention and reformation at the Prisons if found guilty. Therefore the role they play is key to crime control in our society.
The legislations that guide the system were promulgated in 1902 and 1960 respectively. The Criminal code of 1902 for Southern Nigeria and the Penal code of 1960 for Northern Nigeria. The Penal code that operated in Northern Nigeria, was a result of the “Abu Ranat Panel” set up by the Premier of the Northern Region, Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardaunan Sokoto in 1959 to harmonize existing legislations of that time to capture the sensitive and diverse nature of the Northern Region.
Accordingly, the Nigeria Bar Association during the Presidency of Chief J. B. Daudu SAN, convened a National Conference on the reform of the criminal justice system; Chaired by Chief A.B. Mahmoud SAN, to look into the inconsistencies of these obsolete legislations and present the need for a criminal code that will be uniform in the 36 states of the federation and the FCT. One of the major findings of that conference was that the Criminal Justice delivery system was beset with a myriad of problems including but not limited to “inadequate policing”. That conference had the present Vice President of Nigeria, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo SAN, and Prof. Tunde Ogowewo; a Professor of Law at the Kings College London among the speakers, with the Key note address given by American Professor of Law at New York University Mr. Bryan Stevenson.
 In light of this observation it is expected that the Vice President of Nigeria who was a speaker in that conference will appreciate the enormity of the problem and add his support to erase this lacuna in the Nigeria Police Force, for a better and effective policing of the nation.
Hon. Yerima is member of the National Assembly, Representing Misau/Dambam Federal Constituency in Bauchi State