I grew with some fear of the Nigerian police. Even more than for any other force. Not because I had gotten any encounters with them at the time but because I had come to see how very brutal they could be. If you've ever had any with them, I don't believe it went well. And I have since written them off cause all of(or most) of the things they say they stand for are false. Their actions doesn't match their words. Whoever even does the selection of these people needs to be checked cause I don't understand why they seem to be ill-tempered and without empathy(not everyone of them tho).
UnsplashIf you fall prey to them, not only will your pockets feel the brutality, your body just might. This has given them a bad image and we're not so sure when that will change.
That said, here's my encounter...
This happened sometime in 2019. At the time I was working at a nail tech shop. On this particular day, a Saturday, I had closed
late from work at about 8:00pm and I had to board a vehicle home.
It had rained earlier and I remember I stood at the bustop for a while due to scarcity of vehicles and finally got a bus that was heading my way.
We got to a point and there
were policemen there. At that time, seeing uniformed officers at many points on the road was very common and that was due to the high rate of kidnap. They stopped our vehicle and asked the driver for all of the necessary particulars which he provided and gave to them. One of the policeman flashed his torch lights into a vehicle, took a quizzical look at all our faces and asked us all to get down with our stuff. I expected that cause the bus I was in was filled with young people, mostly.
I had this backpack in my possession which contained a few of my work tools so he asked me what the content of my bag was. I started to panic and open the bag and while I was opening it, I was telling him, "I work in a nail tech shop, we use scissors for our work". I guess he had noticed the me panicking - that's something about them(the police). They’re quick to notice people and their behaviours - so he asked me, somewhat calmly, "I asked the content of your bag. I did not ask you to open it up. I paused a short while, took some deep breaths and then told him that it was a few of my work tools and I had to name them for him. And then he moved from me onto the next passenger.
That was about the most altercation and confrontation I’ve had with the police. I know it was not so chaotic.
Meanwhile, another guy in the car had to face their brutality because he had an iPhone
and they spoke to him about being this and this but then I was lucky to have been let off which was probably because I am a female (a very young female) and they just could not do much to me.
But for the guy, it was a different story and they were wrong. His crime was being in possession of an iPhone. No big deal but these men never care about that. They asked him to unlock his phone, they searched it and I don't think they found anything incriminating yet they tried to bully him to admitting what he wasn't. At some point, they talked about taking him to the station.
At some point when I was speaking, one of the policemen suggested that I used my tools as a sort of weapon which I refuted because it was for work and thankfully, I could produce a few other things that are in line with the work. It was just one dramatic night.
Did I mention that this other guy had to bribe them for him to be let free to go? Well, that's what happened. We were asked to get back in the vehicle, an officer called the bus-driver aside, spoke to him briefly for awhile and we were allowed to continue on our way.
But then, when I got back into the vehicle, I thought of something. In the Bible, when God called Adam after himself and eve had eaten of the fruit they were commanded not to, he(Adam) answered, "I am naked" meanwhile the question that he was asked was, "where are you?"
So I thought to myself, that was a similar situation as mine. Normally I would laugh at the story cause he was asked A, and he answered, B. But after that night experience I realized that Adam was a human being like myself. He probably was in fear like I was. I guess.
You'd understand better if you’ve ever encountered the Nigerian police or seen them in action.
If I got any lessons, it was to be a lot more calm and collected when dealing with these people. I could have gotten into more trouble for being fidgety.
Thanks for gracing this post.
Greetings!