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Monday 30 September 2013

What to Do When Stopped By The Nigeria Police

It could happen to you.
Where are you coming from?
Where are you going to?
Where do you live?
Where do you work?
Do you have an identity card?
These are very simple questions, which can be easily answered by almost everyone. But when a police officer is involved, it can cause a lot of problems both for the officer and YOU. Most of the time, there is a reason for the officer to question you – even if it may not seem so at the time.
The officer may be investigating a complaint in the neighbourhood, or following up on a radio call concerning a crime committed in the area.
For one reason or another, you may be the individual the police suspect. You may have knowledge that will help in the investigation, or the officer may think that you are experiencing some kind of trouble.
Some times the manner in which the police question you may seem as if the officer is not respecting YOUR RIGHTS. Sometimes you may overreact to the questions and create a more serious situation. We will attempt to explain your rights. What to remember, and what to expect when an officer starts asking you a lot of questions… it could save you from answering a lot more unnecessary questions.

THE POLICE IN YOUR CAR

If you are driving a vehicle, the police can ask you to stop at any time. The best thing to do in this situation is to park and follow the directions of the officer. You will probably be asked to produce your driver’s license and particulars of the vehicle. This you must do, if asked. If you are stopped at night, turn on your interior light and show the officer that nothing is wrong. It is best to do nothing, which may give reason to search further. Having your light on and keeping your hand on the steering wheel will usually put the officer’s mind at ease.
Chances are that the officer might ask you to go if you have all your papers. The officer might say that you have violated traffic rules, if your papers are not correct or ask you to come out of your car for a search, if he is on Stop and Search duty. Remember that he or she is operating within the law in all these activities. Of course, you may explain at any point in this encounter, but you should limit your comments. Be careful how to make your points. A simple traffic violation may start costing you a fortune in fines for other violations. If you think that you have not violated any traffic rules, then carry your protest to the Police Public Complaints Bureau nearest to you.

IF YOU ARE STOPPED BY THE POLICE ON THE STREET

Most of the problems you may encounter with the police can be avoided. Remember, they think they have reason (probable cause) to stop you and ask questions. At this time, you should stop, collect your thoughts and remain calm. Whether or not you are arrested, may just depend on how calm and prepared you are at this time. There are many factors that the police may take into consideration when observing you. Every situation is different and the officer may consider the following factors,
 When you are running and a crime has been reported in the Area
 If you are hanging around with people under police investigation
 You are in an area where crime has just been reported
 You are in an area which the police believe to be abandoned or unoccupied, or a blackspot.
 You are acting in a manner, which appears to be suspicious
 The police believe you are in possession of stolen property.
 Someone else has identified you to the police.
 When you use derogatory or offensive language… You may be saying the wrong thing at the wrong time.
While these things are taken into consideration when questioning you, the police MUST STILL RESPECT YOUR RIGHTS NOT TO ANSWER QUESTIONS THAT SOUND ACCUSATORY
 If the police have stopped you, they believe there is a reason to do so.
 It is best to be calm and identity yourself
 In many a situation, you can talk your way into arrest or detention as well as talk yourself out of trouble. By yelling, threatening or swearing at an officer, the BEST you can do is get yourself Arrested… and who needs that.
Follow CLEEN Foundation @cleenfoundation @LegalOil @stopthebribes
This brochure was prepared by CLEEN Foundation with support from MacArthur Foundation. CLEEN Foundation promotes public safety, security and justice through empirical research, legislative advocacy, demonstration programmes and publications in partnership with government and civil society.

Another policeman caught on video demanding N10,000 bribe

For the third time in the past two months, another policeman has been caught on video demanding a bribe of N10,000 from a motorist.
The footage, secretly filmed by a passenger at the back seat of a vehicle in Onitsha, Anambra State, has so far received thousands of hits on YouTube. The three-minute 18-second video which first appeared on the YouTube channel of one Tola Tim, has since become an Internet sensation.
In the video, a policeman apprehended the driver of a vehicle that was coming from Akure, Ondo State to Umuahia, Abia State. The policeman sat in the front seat with the driver, and after checking the vehicle particulars, declared that he had discovered some discrepancies between the documents and the chassis number.
In the video, the policeman explained that the number ‘0’ was the last number on the chassis number inscribed on the vehicle, while number ‘3’was the last number on the documents presented to him for perusal.
The driver was seen arguing with the policeman that he had asked him to veer off the road in order to enable him (policeman) do proper checking of the vehicle. Once the alleged discrepancies were discovered, the policeman insisted that he would collect N10,000 before he would release him.
The driver’s appeal that there was an unintended mix-up somewhere and that the vehicle was not a stolen one fell on deaf ears.  A nursing mother who sat at the back also appealed to the policeman.
The man in uniform bellows, “Settle us. Just give us N10,000 make I waka comot. Or is it too much? If I knew you stole the vehicle, I won’t collect money from you.”
But the driver, on noticing the adamance of the policeman, said he won’t give in to his demands.
It is three much! I want you to take me to your station. I’m not afraid of anything. I can go back to Akure. At worst, I will miss my appointment in Umuahia. Why will I part with N10,000 on the vehicle I didn’t steal? No sir! I can’t do that.
“I will rather go back to Akure, get the registration officer and other supporting documents, come back with another vehicle and clear myself. And that is to tell you that I have not done something wrong,” the driver said.
The unidentified driver also calmed the nerves of the apprehensive nursing mother who clutched a baby girl to herself. “My sister, don’t worry! At worst, you will sleep in a hotel with your baby when I go back to Akure,” the driver added.
The policeman replied, “Eh eh. It is three much. Wetin make am too much?” After ruminating over the issue for some seconds, the policeman, who was armed with a gun, ordered, “Driver, come down.” And the video went dead.
Meanwhile, outrage has trailed the incident on various social media platforms. Those who have watched the video online describe the encounter as a pointer to the depth of rot and decay in the Nigeria Police Force.
They urged the Inspector General of Police, Mr. Mohammed Abubakar, to conduct an orderly room trial to ascertain the policeman’s culpability in the alleged crime and place appropriate sanctions on him if found guilty.
An anonymous reader on lindaikeji.blogspot.com says apart from condemning the act of corruption and sacking the culprit, more needs to be done to cater for the welfare of the rank and file of the police.
The reader said, “If you have a police officer as your relative, you will understand better. The income they get can’t even feed them alone not to talk of their families. The country doesn’t cater adequately for their needs. Many police barracks look like refuse dumps and they are expected to live there with their children.”
But a YouTube user, Paul Saint, argued that there is no excuse for being corrupt, attributing the behaviour to greed.
Saint stated, “This has nothing to do with the service welfare of the police. Corruption in Nigeria has nothing to do with low or high salary pay. If you are corrupt, no matter what you earn, you will still find ways to illegally enrich yourself. Most cases of corruption recorded in this country are perpetrated by persons who are otherwise fairlycomfortable with bribes.
“Corruption is as a result of greed only. Not poverty or low pay. We must condemn corruption at all times and not make excuses for it. But even if they are not well paid, there is no excuse for corruption. The most corrupt persons in Nigeria started off with collecting less than N10,000 and because we excuse them or celebrate them, they step up their demands to millions and billions. Well paid or not, do not demand or collect bribe.”
It will be recalled that three cops have so far been dismissed by the police authorities after being filmed demanding bribes from motorists.
A police sergeant, Chris Omeleze, who was caught on video camera extorting N25,000 from a motorist in Lagos in August was the first casuality of the social media whistle-blowing.
Two traffic policewomen, corporals Elizabeth Itolor and Jennifer Azingbe, who were also videotaped receiving N100 bribe from a commercial bus driver at the Oshodi/Apapa Expressway were dismissed earlier this month.
Source: Punch

Thursday 29 August 2013

Fight Bribery with Knowledge - Know Your Traffic Laws

Many motorists hardly have an idea, what road signs, markings and even general laws are or mean. So most of the the times when pulled-over by an officer of the law (LASTMA or Police), we get jittery and immediately look for ways to quickly get out of the situation. Most times therefore we resort to bribing our way out, even at times when we haven't broken any laws.

Knowledge as we all know is power. Therefore, once again you are reminded of the laws and regulations for  road users that have been made available to help avoid situations that will push you to make the wrong decisions.

Download, print and share here http://tinyurl.com/p5nuxf6 

Have a great day!

Tuesday 27 August 2013

Bribe-demanding cop and the rest thieves

It has been ‘all hail the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar’ for a couple of days now. With exceptional promptitude, the Lagos State Police Command on the orders of the IGP dismissed an extortionist police sergeant, Chris Omeleze, who was caught on video camera demanding a bribe from an unnamed motorist. Greedy Omeleze with Force Number 192954 and 21 years on the job reportedly refused to accept N2,000 for an alleged traffic offence committed by the motorist, but salivated for N25,000 from his victim. He ended up squandering his 21 years in police service on the temple of bribe; and dragging his family’s name in the mud. There are, however, countless Chris Omelezes still in the Nigeria Police Force that may never be caught. But the quick intervention of the police high command by subjecting the cop to immediate orderly room trial and sack could deter some of his colleagues or slacken the long hands of others for whom bribe-taking and ‘long throat’ have become a way of life just for some time. This, however, is on an aside note.

The critical point worth elaborating on is that Omeleze has joined scores of ‘small thieves’ whose hands were ‘chopped off’ for ‘inconsequential stealing’, while the big time marauders in and out of government walk tall on the nation’s streets with the dangerous grimace of ravenous wolves, looking for what next to steal or bribe to take. One agrees to a great extent with former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s last week ‘yabis’, when he said: “It is sad that after 53 years of independence, we have no leader we can commend. Then we are jinxed and cursed…”. This is because had public officers who have decreed the cumulative shame of treasury looting, fraud and bribe taking on the nation been earning the Omeleze treatment, the country would probably not have come this far in leadership impropriety and moral decadence.

Still jostling for power even presently are leaders in and out of government indicted for corrupt practices; that deserve condemnation to death or life imprisonment for the misery their itchy fingers on the nation’s treasury, frauds, bribery and kick-back syndrome have plunged Nigeria and Nigerians into. Where is that nation, if it is not cursed, that will generously tolerate such infractions of the system, refuse to allocate commensurate punishment to the perpetrators, and even grant ‘state pardon’ to convicted and wanted criminals? Can the harsh judgement of the police leadership on Omeleze serve as enough a lesson to a nation that parades largely condemnable leaders; leaders who bend, twist and undermine the law such that grave crimes even against the state go unpunished?
As we speak, for instance, no head or tail has been made of many past governors docked for corruption by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). In the National Assembly, lawmakers indulge in self-preservation and cover-up of their self-inflicted odious reputation. So far, as yet another example, the nation is still being regaled with fairy tales about the prosecution of House of Representatives member, Farouk Lawan, docked for a $3 million oil subsidy bribe scandal involving oil magnate, Mr. Femi Otedola, last year. The same goes for the trial of two of Lawan’s colleagues, Herman Hembe and Azubuogu Ifeanyi, arraigned for alleged diversion of public funds in the popular Capital Market scam of last year. Instead of showing remorse, rebuking and possibly punishing their members for their dishonourable conduct, the federal legislature had busied itself with plots to stifle life out of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) whose Director-General, Arunma Oteh, stirred the Capital Market scandal.

Compare the trend with the treatment James Anthony Traficant, Jr., a former Democratic Party (DP) politician and member of the United States’ House of Representatives from Ohio, got on being convicted of taking bribes, filing false tax returns, racketeering, etc. On April 12, 2002, after a two-month federal trial, Traficant was found guilty of bribery and other charges and sentenced to a seven-year jail term by a federal jury. He served out the prison term before regaining his freedom. On July 24, the lawmakers voted 420 to 1 to expel him. The only vote against Traficant’s expulsion was cast by Rep. Gary Condit, who himself was battling with a scandal.

Michael Joseph “Ozzie” Myers, also a Democrat US House of Representatives’ member, had been expelled earlier in 1980 in connection with the ‘Abscam scandal’. Myers was videotaped accepting a bribe of $50,000 from undercover FBI agents on August 22, 1979. He was expelled from the House of Representatives on October 2, 1980, by a vote of 376 to 30. Down here, on the contrary, the executive arm of government is reputed for unconscionable looting; while the legislature revels in protecting its members who have refused to leave bribe-taking alone, despite their fat and outof- this-world remunerations. Now corrupted by the first two, the judiciary was also desperately competing to outdo its sister arms of government in the despicable act until the ongoing efforts by the relevant authorities to save the bench. When a country’s leadership fights shy of the resolute application of the law to stem grievous harm to its soul, injustices as well as the control of immoral behaviour in public life, what remains of that nation? Nothing! Such a country, if not already doomed, has a very grim and unpredictable future.

Source:  nationalmirror

Monday 26 August 2013

Police Commissioner Disciplines 108 Policemen Over Alleged Corruption

Kano State commissioner of police, Alhaji Musa Daura, has revealed that he has disciplined 108 policemen over corruption, misconduct, misfiring and incivility to members of the public.

In a press release issued to newsmen, the police commissioner stated that out of the figure, “20 policemen were outrightly dismissed, 20 demoted in rank, 33 received punishment of major entries, two were reprimanded, while 33 were issued with warning letters”.

Alhaji Daura hinted that he had recorded these successes with the support of good policemen around him, since his assumption of duty in the state in February 2013.

He said the state police command would not condone any form of indiscipline and corruption among police personnel, and therefore advised the general public to report to the command any negative conduct of policemen at any duty post through the public complaint bureau phone numbers; 08057959393, 08031803555, 08032419754, 080123821575, 08099831808 and 08066628450.

Source: leadership

Friday 23 August 2013

‘Corrupt officials should pay more than they stole’

A SENIOR Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Dr. Abiodun Layonu, has advised the Federal Government and anti-corruption agencies to consider punishing graft not only with jail terms, but also by making sure that individuals who are found guilty pay more than they have stolen.
  In his opinion, this will go a long way to reduce graft and its tendencies.
  Layonu gave this advice on Wednesday while giving the keynote address at the public presentation of the maiden edition of the ICPC Law Report in Abuja.
  “The only way to make them desist from corruption is to hit their pockets. Let them pay more than they stole because some people are ready to spend time in jail and come out to enjoy the loot”, he said, while stating that the option of plea-bargain is good but care must be taken to avoid its abuse.
  While noting also that adequate funding of the anti-graft agencies was paramount, he suggested a novel idea on alternative funding for graft fighters.
  According to him, instead of waiting for government allocations every year, anti-corruption would be better funded if all current account holders are charged say N500 once a year. The funds got could then be channeled towards fighting corruption.
Source: Guardian

How to tame corruption, by IGP, Akanbi, Agabi, others

Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Mohammed Abubakar; pioneer Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), Justice Mustapha Akanbi and two others have suggested ways the nation can effectively tackle corruption.
Abubakar and a senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Abiodun Layonu, advocated an increase in the funding of anti-graft and related agencies.
Justice Akanbi and a former Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Mr Kanu Agabi (SAN), said the anti-graft fight required the support of all for the nation to succeed in stopping impunity.
They spoke in Abuja at the public presentation of the maiden edition of the ICPC Law Report, a compilation of 21 cases (criminal and civil) which the commission prosecuted and won in court.
Abubakar said for the nation to succeed in its anti-corruption fight, the agencies saddled with the responsibility must be well funded.
“How do you fight corruption when you are not well paid, not well trained and not well motivated?” he queried.
The IGP said the fight against corruption was difficult because it require the commitment of all.
He stressed that to succeed in the anti-graft war, the anti-graft agencies’ personnel must be committed.
The police chief said such workers were faced daily with temptation in the course of their duties.
To succeed, Abubakar said such workers should be well motivated, well trained and well paid.
He called for enhanced collaboration among agencies involved in the fight against malfeasance and other vices to boost their performance.
Justice Akanbi urged public officers to operate with the fear of God and be committed to their duties.
The former President of the Court of Appeal, who recalled the challenges he encountered in ICPC‘s said early days, the commission’s major problem was funding.
“You cannot run an anti-corruption body if you are not well funded,” he said.
Justice Akanbi, who headed the ICPC between 2000 and 2005, attributed the successes he recorded to the non-interference in the commission’s activities by the three Attorneys-General of the Federation under who he served.
He frowned at the reported insistence of the incumbent AGF to oversee ICPC‘s activities. Justice Mustapha said the decision could cost the commission its independence.
He praised the ICPC leadership for the Law Report, which he said would serve as a legacy for future generation.
Justice Agabi, who reviewed the Law Report, published by ICPC and a private organisation, argued that a few people were leading the nation corruption war.
He called for coordinated efforts to end acts of malfeasance and impunity in the country.
“No effort was too much to fight corruption. Unless we, as a nation resolve that we are guilty and change our ways, we are going nowhere.
“The problem we are having is just from a few people. And they will not prevail. Evil will not prevail. In this country, we behave as if we do not have ears. But on the last day, when God calls you to either His right or left hand side, would you not hear?” he said.