Pages

Sunday, September 23, 2012

The craze in the police

On the back of the previous post on police and extra-judicial killings, I want to talk about Lagos police and their hide and seek games. Am talking about the ones stationed on the roads to help curb traffic jam and prevent unlawful activities of bike and bus drivers.

The other day, I was going past Agor round-about when a bike rider carrying two passengers struggled along with his colleagues to sqyeeze through the traffic and suddenly, one policeman jumped on him shouting ' I have caught you today'. As the policeman was celebating his catch and holding on to the Okada man's bike, the traffic started flowing and this okadaman stepped on his pedal, speeding away with the surprised Policeman in hot pursuit.

He was running after the okadaman not caring how insane he looked and if he would cause an accident. The okadaman escaped and the policeman came back biting his finger and cursing.


Days later, at that same spot, a woman was thrown to the ground when the okada man carrying her attempted to escape the policemen.

What some of these policemen now do is; they hide in a corner so that they are not seen and then swoop on unsuspecting bike riders. They are so engrossed in catching this okada men that if a thief was stealing right there they wouldn't even notice.

Now talk of how some of them dress? Gosh, I once came across one who was holding this sachet 'ogogoro' that 'aboki' men sell at 7am in the morning, his rifle tucked under his arm, his hair disheveled, his shirt tucked in on one side while the other was flying in the wind. He completed the get-up with a dirty bathroom slippers.

Some of these crazy-acting, dirty policemen are indeed giving a bad name to those who know their onion as most people would rather trust a thief than the police.

No comments: