Why we indicted Magu in 2010 – Parry Osayande, ex-Chairman, PSC

From Tony Osauzo and Ighomuaye Lucky, Benin

Mr. Parry Osayande is a retired Deputy Inspector General of Police and former Chairman of the Nigeria Police Service Commission, who had served as chairman and twice as member in the three reforms carried out on the Nigeria Police by the Federal Government.

In this interview, the former tough cop spoke extensively on the need by the Federal Government to adequately fund the police in all aspects, including introducing modern technology to policing the country. According to him, Nigeria is the only country where policemen still carry guns in the streets.

He also spoke on the controversy surrounding the acting Chairman of the‎ Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Ibrahim Magu and confirmed that the Police Service Commission under his chairmanship gave the embattled EFCC boss a serious reprimand in 2010 for being in possession of official secret files in his house.

As a former top cop and Chairman of Nigeria Police Service Commission, how can Nigeria reform the police to serve Nigerians better?

In Nigeria today, if you want to effect change, you have to examine what is on ground and then identify the defects before you can get change. It all depends on your target. The country has nearly two hundred million people, starting from near desert encroachment from the north, sub-Sahara to the grassland and then from the grassland, to the thick forest, to the swampy areas, to the mangrove and to the Atlantic Ocean. What you find is little development.

The government, in its wisdom, I do not see any wisdom in it, has proliferated the security agencies. The government now established Road Safety, the Nigeria Police, name them and then, it will now split the budget that it should have used to make two solid law enforcement agencies.

And these people now are quarreling over who does what and who does not do anything. So, what the heck are you talking about policing. Why must we zero in on the police? Go and zero in on the DSS, because they have been given the same appointment. Go and zero in on Road Safety, because they have been given the same appointment even it is being said that they breached the constitution, because if you look at the law establishing Road Safety, they said the Nigeria Police does not have control over traffic. But it is in the constitution that traffic control is under the police. Did they annul that part of the constitution?

So, the people are stale, they are not moving with time. Government, they have refused to embrace the dynamics of modernization. No job, nothing. And then, people now want to resort to crime and of course, when we are talking of crimes, modern technology has gotten its own advantages and disadvantages. Like 20 years ago, we did not have anything like cyber crimes. When I was in the police, they used to steal bicycle and that is not the trend any longer. How many bicycles will you steal that will give you money?

When you are talking of reforming the police, before the military regime, we have four regions and then metamorphosed to 12 to 18 and then to 36 states including Abuja, which is the federal capital. All those states that were created still have not gotten police headquarters, some of them. When I was Chairman of Police Service Commission, I toured the whole country with my commissioners. We interacted with traditional rulers, governors, members of their state executive councils, with the press, the entire police officers, and individuals.

They were saying the same thing. We toured and so, they gave us their views. We exchanged ideas and we came back to the drawing table and then we did what we called a new approach to policing.

Well on that, the then president asked me to chair the committee to review the police. And I remember right there, a lot of people like Akagbosu who was a retired AIG, Agbaso, retired AIG, Major General Chigbue, who was the Provost Marshall in the Army, Prof. Saliba Umukoro, Febian Ajoku, SAN, my Permanent Secretary in the Police Service Commission, Engr. Eta Gunda was the secretary.

We went down and wrote a document on it. The government has been carrying out our recommendation piecemeal, but you can see a lot of improvement. Have you been hearing of policemen killing people on the streets since then?

It is just like when you have something that you need and you are getting it, it will just be there and you will not value it, but if you are deprived of it then you will value it. If you have constant electricity supply, you will not complain. So, we told them this thing. In some degrees of certainty, the Nigeria Police is the least funded police organization in the whole of Africa.

Do you know that police officers during the rainy season  have no raincoats?  We had it in our time, when we had not gotten oil money, but now they have no raincoats.

Are you trying to say that without proper funding, your recommendation will not work?

How can it work? I said the most expensive venture by any government is security. I remember when the late British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, was asked by the press why was it that the commissioner of police earned more salary than herself, she said if he was not there to do his job, she could not be a Prime Minister.

What examples are we giving the upcoming ones? When people are talking of stealing billions, poverty of reasoning, absolute wretchedness, what are you going to do with billions? What you can use in setting up an industry and create employment for people, so that people can pray for you.

From what you have just stated now, it means without proper funding whatever reforms you want to do will not work?

That is one aspect and the other is that there is proliferation of agencies, agencies doing the same thing. It is just like 20 women marrying one man, there will be schism and bickering. The DSS will say I detect it first, police will say they detect it first. So each one will try to outshine the other.

Would you recommend to the Federal Government to prune down some of these agencies and fuse them?

Yes. Prune them down. When you go to cities now, the police have withdrawn from traffic control and the Road Safety is not there, so, it is free for all fight, chaos. People do what they like. You see a commercial vehicle driver parking at the centre of the road. I have to use my walking stick on one. He was making calls and I was hooting, his engine was running, mine was also running, let me have my right of way, he refused, because of lawlessness.

If you commit an offence and you know you can go scot free, you will continue to commit it, but if you know that there will be sanction, you will refrain. You saw what happened in Ghana. Rawlings brought out the corrupt people and he executed them. I am not saying they should go and execute them here, but at least, people should be able to be convicted and sentenced to prison. And then when somebody has gone to prison for stealing and not when he comes you now adore him and turn his place to Mecca.

Let’s talk about inter-agency rivalry you mentioned earlier. What is the way to avoid it?

If you insist on keeping the whole agencies, the idea is to cooperate and not one trying to dominate the others. For instance, the way I know it, what they now call DSS, I was the author of that thing. I wrote the memo that started the whole thing to General Obasanjo in those days. Now, what they should do, if during the course of my duty, I come across any intelligence which will be of help to the police, I pass it on to them and they also pass to us, that is vice-versa.

And then, in our days, we had a control room in the force headquarters where we used to have the navy, army and police sending officers of almost equivalent rank to go and man it. Then, we were able to monitor the policemen and security agencies who were on the field and any incident. You can give directive on how it can be dealt with. But right now, once the offices close at 4pm, everybody closes. So you leave the whole town and villages to the criminals.

What necessitated your memo on setting up the DSS?

Well, I was a bubbling officer, a young officer brimming with ideas. I wrote a memo to Bourdillon and I said look, what will be the role of the police if Cameroon invaded Nigeria? They were telling me they have not been to Lagos and that Osayande has started again. You look ahead, that I have started again? I said well, sir,  you can call it a mere exercise, but it can happen. They warned me and I went back. Years later, Cameroon invaded Nigeria. You see the point? Always think ahead. So, I do not know, go and tell government that it should fund them. Go and look at the report. Do not send people to write a report and waste their time and then you go and put it in the archives.

Are you satisfied with the setting up of DSS? Has the purpose been achieved?

Yes, they are doing well, but they should neither be heard nor seen. They should work clandestinely. That is where I disagree with them. They should work behind the scene.

Ibrahim Magu is from the police and heads the EFCC. The DSS has written a report to say he was indicted and was almost dismissed. That at the time that happened, you were still the chairman of the Police Service Commission and the matter was brought before you. Was there any such thing?

Yes.

He was actually indicted?

Yes. He was given severe reprimand then. I think it was in 2010.

 What was the case?

I think they saw an official document in his house. What happened was that the Police Service Commission is probably the oldest commission in this whole country.. What happened was that before independence, the British in their wisdom called the political leaders to London for a conference, Awolowo from the west, Ahmadu Bello and some people from the minority areas were also called. They expressed a fear in the minority that at independence, the majority tribe will use the police to oppress them.

 So, they appointed a QC as a commissioner. So, he made the recommendation that there should be a Police Service Commission. And their duty was to recruit officers into the Nigeria Police, discipline and promote policemen, amongst others.

And that in the recruitment, they should ensure that there was tribal balance. So, they were the precursor of federal character recruitment policy. So in the case of Magu, as you have mentioned, I can remember vividly, I think it was the time they removed Lamorde. There were certain sensitive documents found in his house and then the police now gave him a query. That is how we discipline an officer. When they give you a query, they will now send everything to the PSC.

So, we sat in plenary and came out with everything one by one and as at that time, the case was serious. So, we gave him severe reprimand  then, I think it was 2010.

 So, could that be the reason the DSS is saying he is not fit to occupy the position of Chairman of the EFCC?

I don’t know, I am‎ not a politician, go and ask them.

In the light of what you have done and your recommendations and what we see now in the Nigerian society, what advice would you give to the Federal Government about the police?

Go and fund the police. Do you know that this is not the era of policing a given area and base it on manpower?  Base it on technology. When I went to Namibia under the auspices of the United Nations when they wanted to gain their independence in 1990, I went there to visit our boys there. Namibia was still under the UN, they have three policemen to one vehicle. You give mobility and that is what policing is based on, communication, mobility, intelligence and then gathering of intelligence. And it is not the matter of walking around the streets because the most conspicuous man in the street is the person in uniform. So, when a thief sees you, he will hide and suspend what he is doing until you leave, before he will continue with what he is doing. Look at what happened in America when they were doing cross-country and somebody planted a bomb. How did they get them? Apart from the fact that they arrested one of them, everything was on camera, close circuit.

As big as Lagos State, Benin, and other states, there are no close circuit cameras. It is a disaster.

Share

from The Sun News http://ift.tt/2nFOwDr
via IFTTT