The Nigerian Police, unsurprisingly, is the “least corrupt” institution in the nation, says the Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase.
Arase, represented by the Commissioner of Police for the Federal Capital Territory, Mr. Wilson Inalegwu at the annual ‘Feast of Barracuda’ organised by the National Association of Seadogs, said the police was hard at work fishing out “bad eggs” in a bid to tackle corruption in its house.
In his words: “The IG said he is allergic to corruption and since then he has taken practical steps to deal with the issue of corruption, both the history of corruption and perception of corruption of the Nigeria Police Force.
“One of the first things he did was to set up the IGP’s Monitoring Teams. First of all, the decision by the Police Management Team was to take out roadblocks across all our highways. It was not just to dismantle it, he set up the IGP Monitoring Team to ensure that these directives are enforced.
“If you go across most of our highways now, roadblocks have been reduced to the barest minimum, and anybody mounting roadblocks does that at his risk.
“Presentations are also made where Commissioners of Police are invited to look at the situations across the country right from the condition of suspects in Police cells and they have a technical platform that enable them to monitor the behaviour and conduct of police officers on the road as they handle suspects.”
“The Nigeria Police has the capacity to investigate any corrupt case under the laws, either the Criminal Code law or the Penal Code law. The Police has the competence and the capacity to investigate corrupt cases.
“The Police management under Solomon Arase is doing everything possible to eliminate corruption and has taken practical steps leading to that.
“Once corruption cases are given to the police, the cases must be investigated. The Police has the least corrupt officers in every organisation because it has an in house way of dealing with the issue of organisation, trying officers, arresting officers who engage in corrupt practices.
“I think you can hardly find institutions that are like the Police in taking practical steps to deal with corruption, all I want to say by way of challenge is have confidence in the Police.”