My Lagos Diary - Episode 2

****EPISODE TWO****

Police Palava

PS: This is a general post….. If I begin to write about my personal experiences with Nigeria Police then I’ll write a whole book

Have you ever wondered what the job of the Nigeria Police, LASTMA and Road Safety really is? Frankly speaking, with the amount of uniformed men we have in Nigeria, especially Lagos State one would think that abnormalities and crime rates would be reduced however, the reverse is the case. In fact, these uniformed men have turned into culprits themselves, It is now a norm for Policemen to stand at designated bus stops to collect money from drivers and motorcyclists.

If you live within Alagbole/Akute/Ajuwon/Ishasi and you go home from Berger, especially those that go to those areas at night you’ll see our ‘amazing’ Policemen who are supposed to be speed breakers standing by the roadside behaving like ‘agbero’ (tout). There are different checkpoints, one at Sabo bus stop, another at oja (under bridge) another at Martins bus stop, another at Ajuwon, and another at Ishasi. At each checkpoint each bike man and danfo driver have to pay ₦100, after which they’ll be given a number. You mustn’t forget your number else, you’ll have to pay another money. They do this everyday as though it is their birth right. As a matter of fact, any driver or rider that refuses to pay them gets detained or at least delayed. You need to see them when they notice a particular driver is driving too fast and is not likely to stop, they’ll just jump in front of the vehicle. “Maybe if drivers start to hit them and run more often they’ll learn to stop jumping in front of buses or bikes” …… This is me thinking out loud, even though when I think of how little they’re being paid and how their monthly salary is irregular I pity them a lot. The honest truth is before any strict measure can be put in place to curb these abnormalities, the Federal Government has to play their part by paying these people, and by paying, I mean a substantial amount, together with better compensations and then the standard HMO (if they’re not already doing this). #LagosNaWa #MyLagosDiary

Photo credit: @giditraffic on Twitter