The Force Headquarters of the Nigeria Police Force, Abuja, has arrested an assistant commissioner of police over alleged bribery scandal involving N2.7million cash.
The police high command has also recovered the bribery money involved in the scandal.
The NPF Complaints Response Unit in its 2016 Third Quarter Report, signed by the Acting Assistant Commissioner of Police, Abayomi Shogunle, said that the arrest of the erring officer, who was serving in one of the state commands, followed a complaint received on the phone by the unit and the subsequent reference of the case to the X-Squad for investigation.
According to the CRU report, which covers the months of July to September, necessary disciplinary action was already being taken against the assistant commissioner of police involved in the bribery scandal.
The report added that the suspect from whom the assistant police commissioner collected the bribery money had also been handed over to the appropriate government agency for further investigation and prosecution.
It said, “This new IGP’s directive resulted in the recovery of a cash sum of Two Million, Seven Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira (N2,750,000.00) bribe money from an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP) in one of the State commands following a complaint received through a telephone call to the CRU and subsequent referral to the X-Squad for investigation.
“Necessary disciplinary procedures are ongoing against the officer involved in this unacceptable conduct.
“Meanwhile, the suspect arrested in respect of the case upon which this bribe money was collected has since been handed over to the relevant Government agency for prosecution.”
The CRU report also stated that there was a sharp reduction in the number of complaints against the police nationwide in the third quarter of 2016 as only 405 cases were reported during the period as against the 906 and 1054 reported in the second and first quarters of this year.
“No single complaint was reported against the police in six State Commands – Bauchi, Jigawa, Katsina, Kebbi, Osun and Sokoto States.
“In addition, Kebbi State command is yet to record any case since inception of CRU.
“Rivers State Command tops the State Ranking with 78 complaints which represents 19.26% of total complaints reported.
“Four State commands – Rivers, Lagos, FCT-Abuja and Anambra accounts for more than half of total complaints received – 55.06%.
“The sharp reduction in total number of complaints against the police during the period under review (June-September, 2016) as against the second quarter can be attributed to the fact that police officers are becoming more professional in carrying out their policing duties, awareness about the medium provided to the public to report misconduct and the stand of the current leadership of the Force on zero tolerance to all forms of professional misconduct.
“In line with international best practices in building police – public trust, monitoring safeguards are in place to ensure protection of human rights during police operations nationwide and rights of suspects under police custody.
“The Bail is Free #BailisFree campaign is still ongoing across all media platforms,” the CRU report said.
The report further disclosed that the Inspector-General Police, Mr. Ibahim Idris, has directed that all cases forwarded to state commands and formations should be resolved within 24 hours and the report of actions taken forwarded to the CRU.
“The 2016 Q4 period (October-December) will witness mass distribution of newly approve English and local languages CRU information materials to all Local Government Areas and the FCT Area Councils. More confidence building activities are scheduled to take place with in collaboration with various stakeholders – local and international Human Rights groups, statutory police oversight agencies, professional bodies, interest groups as well as development partners as the Nigeria Police Force is committed to police accountability,” it said.
