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  • These Tweets Prove Nigerian Police PROs Need to Be Stopped

    A very short list of people aren’t allowed to be bad at their jobs — the bartender mixing your drinks, the surgeon giving you a Brazilian Butt Lift (BBL) in Yaba, the tattoo artist trying to spell “gobbledegook” on your forehead and Nigerian police public relations officers (PROs).

    The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) already has an image problem with frequent cases of harassment of citizens, extortion, brutalisation and the occasional extra-judicial murder hanging around its neck. The Force is trying to fix that by having its official image launderers PROs sit online to put some make-up on its public profile.

    But these tweets prove they’re not currently doing the best job.

    Social experiment

    SP Ben Hundeyin is the spokesperson of the Lagos State Police Command and took time out of his busy schedule to randomly drive through two police checkpoints to prove once and for all that police brutality is widely exaggerated. 

    At least that’s what his late-night Twitter thread communicated, even though he swears he only did it to… *checks note* prove there are only a few rotten eggs in the Force. And what was his advice to Nigerians who hope to avoid police brutality? Don’t be condescending, don’t be docile, and smile a little bit.

    These Tweets Prove Nigerian Police PROs Need to Be Stopped

    A dash of victim-blaming

    As the Force spokesperson in Abuja, laundering the image of the NPF is the bread and butter of CSP Olumuyiwa Adejobi, and he tends to take that to the extreme sometimes. 

    He’s suggested many times that police extortion is rampant only because Nigerians are willingly paying the officers. It certainly has nothing to do with having aggressive officers waving a gun in your face and threatening to stress or end your life if you have nothing for the boys. CSP Adejobi thinks you’re just a rich person throwing money around:

    Buried head in the sand

    Here, Bright Edafe, the image launderer of the Delta State Police Command, tweets like someone that’s never read the news before to understand police officers can indeed just shoot you. 

    It’s not a very bright tweet, but does he care about your unsolicited opinion?

    Respect for the uniform

    We’d never advocate for Nigerians to assault police officers because it’s a terrible idea, but “disrespect to the nation”? Like the Nigerian philosopher, Alexander Abolore Adegbola Akande, aka 9ice, said, “Respect is reciprocal. Head does not pass head.”

    Glory hunter

    This is like a chef complaining that you didn’t praise them for not oversalting your food.

    Blogger blogger

    Here’s Brighto again, asking the public to air their opinions on why an 18-year-old “boy” has freedom of movement. 

    These Tweets Prove Nigerian Police PROs Need to Be Stopped

    Also, why does he attach his unrelated personal pictures to the most random tweets?

    What’s a little fake news?

    CSP Adejobi tweeted this with his own hands (we assume), unprovoked:

    …the public reacted with predictable backlash:

    …and then he just confessed (or lied) he deliberately lied to get a reaction from the public.

    These Tweets Prove Nigerian Police PROs Need to Be Stopped

    Is this the account of a 50-year-old public officer, or a teenager trying to get attention online?

    It’s all perspective

    Let’s just say DSP Bright needs to take an online course on anything with critical thinking in the curriculum.

    It’s a good thing that the NPF is planning to launch a PR school that’ll focus on things like behaviour management of officers. Hopefully, Adejobi, Hundeyin and Brighto are front-bench students at the school and not trainers.

    ALSO READ: The Inspector-General Wants Nigerians to Stop Beating Up Police Officers

    Samson Toromade

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  • How to Become a Gun Owner in Nigeria

    Insecurity is one of the biggest threats to the Nigerian way of life as we know it. Thousands of people are being killed by terrorists all across the country, and security agencies appear too overwhelmed to contain them. 

    This is the dire situation that compelled the Zamfara State government to announce a new plan to arm civilians to defend themselves. The government plans to put “basic weapons” in the hands of 9,500 residents, especially farmers, so they can have a fighting chance.

    The problem with Zamfara’s plan is Nigeria is notoriously strict on gun ownership. Even though the constitution doesn’t have a hard line on the topic, bearing arms is mostly restricted to members of the Armed Forces.

    Notwithstanding the red tape, Nigeria still has a guideline for how ordinary citizens can obtain a licence to legally own guns.

    First, who can’t get a licence?

    According to the Firearms Act, anyone who falls under the following categories shouldn’t even dream of getting a licence:

    1. Anyone under the age of 17

    Too young to shoot.

    How to Become a Gun Owner in Nigeria

    2. Anyone of unsound mind

    Well, no one would want someone like that owning a gun.

    3. Anyone with an intemperate habit 

    Maybe your head used to touch on days that end with “y”.

    How to Become a Gun Owner in Nigeria

    4. Anyone with defective eyesight 

    It’s kind of important to be hitting the target when shooting.

    5. Anyone convicted of an offence involving violence or threat of violence within the past five years 

    Because the Nigerian system doesn’t forgive and forget, and we understand this one.

    Cool, I’m none of these people. Where should I queue?

    To apply for a licence to own a gun in Nigeria, you have to face the Nigeria Police Force. 

    The application requires basic personal information and a certified medical report. If the licence is granted, the applicant has to register the serial number of the purchased firearm with the police, and the licence must be renewed annually.

    How to Become a Gun Owner in Nigeria

    But applying for a gun licence isn’t always smooth sailing for a number of reasons.

    Owning a gun isn’t a right

    How to Become a Gun Owner in Nigeria

    The right to own a gun isn’t protected by the Nigerian constitution, so the police aren’t obligated to grant you a licence just because you asked nicely. Even if you tick all the right boxes, the response can be:

    Which is exactly what it says in Section 6 of the Firearms Act. But if that rejection happens, an applicant may petition the president to reconsider. Good luck with that sha.

    How to Become a Gun Owner in Nigeria

    Responsibilities of a gun owner

    By applying for a licence to become a gun owner, an applicant vows to abide by these six specific responsibilities:

    1. Storing the firearm in a safe place

    2. Not allowing the firearm to be used by someone else 

    3. Producing the firearm and licence when required by a police officer

    4. Notifying the licensing authority if the firearm is lost, stolen or destroyed

    5. Notifying the licensing authority and surrendering the firearm to a public armoury when the licence holder travels abroad

    6. Notifying the licensing authority when the licence holder changes residential address

    How easy is it to get a gun licence in Nigeria?

    The Nigerian government isn’t favourably-disposed to civilians bearing arms despite the escalating insecurity in the country. The Zamfara State Police Command has already announced that it won’t grant licences as ordered by the government. 

    So, even though there’s a process to becoming a legal gun owner, the government isn’t too invested in its success. It’s not impossible to become a legal gun owner in Nigeria, it’s just not as easy as subscribing for Netflix.

    ALSO READ: Do You Know About Nigeria’s Firearms Act?

    Samson Toromade

    , , , ,
  • How Come the NPF Is Searching for Missing AK-47 Rifles Inside Books?

    As human beings, it’s normal to lose things sometimes because we cannot always be vigilant. The TV remote grows legs, you can’t find your ATM card when you need to pay for that expensive meal or your phone charger is suddenly nowhere to be found; it happens.

    What you don’t expect to go missing is thousands of weapons enough to take over a small country. But that’s exactly what the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) is currently missing.

    How does one find thousands of missing AK-47 rifles

    How the hell did that happen?

    A total of 178,459 different types of arms and ammunition belonging to the Force were unaccounted for as of January 2020. 88,078 of them are AK-47 rifles, along with 3,907 other assorted rifles and pistols.

    This massive loss was exposed in a report submitted to the National Assembly by the Office of the Auditor General of the Federation (AuGF) in 2021. The audit established that the Force failed to keep appropriate records of firearms and ammunition. The standard practice is the officer in charge of an armoury reports the loss of firearms within three days. This was not happening across many formations of the NPF because since when is standard practice anything more than a suggestion in Nigeria?

    For example, a Police Mobile Force (PMF) Squadron in Abuja lost 46 firearms between 2000 and 2019, according to its schedule, yet didn’t report a single one missing.

    Thousands of AK-47 rifles are missing

    If you sold laptops and mysteriously lost five of them in one month, chances are high that you would at least tweet about it in frustration. The NPF lost more than 88,000 AK-47 rifles and kept it moving like it’s a normal day at the office.

    And when the audit team raised concerns about its discovery, the Police Force failed to respond.

    What’s the implication of this?

    A gang of armed robbers attacked six banks and a police station and killed more than 30 people in Offa, Kwara state in April 2018. The suspects later confessed that it was a former SARS officer who had supplied them with the AK-47 rifles used for the attack. It’s not difficult to draw a straight line between that officer’s access to illegal arms and the poor record-keeping culture of the NPF.

    For a country with a scale of insecurity like Nigeria, missing firearms should raise eyebrows. The easy spread of small arms and ammunition across the country is a major driving force for increasing violence.

    Not only are these missing arms going straight into the wrong hands, but they also cost taxpayers money to replace them.

    What’s the Nigerian Police doing about this?

    The spokesperson of the NPF, Muyiwa Adejobi, told Punch on February 25, 2022 that the Inspector-General of Police, Usman Baba, is looking into the matter. He mentioned that it was unlikely that the number of arms flagged as lost is accurate.

    The number of missing AK-47 rifles is in question

    Adejobi said, “What we need to do is to reconcile our report with the one being quoted. We have our records too. I guess there are some arms on loan to various formations. For instance, if a certain number of arms are given to Lagos for special operations, all these movements are always documented but are complex.”

    While Adejobi does not dispute that firearms are lost, he believes a reconciliation of records will show the figure is not as high as the audit found. So maybe it’s only, say, 50,000 AK-47 rifles missing, not 88,078?

    How long will it take to know for sure? It may take a while for the NPF to set its own records straight. But we advice that no one should hold their breath for an answer.

    Samson Toromade

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