Police IG Begs Nigerians: Stop Corrupting My Policemen

The inspector general of police, IGP Solomon Arase, on Tuesday heaped the blame for corruption in the police on Nigerians and sent out an appeal that Nigerians should stop corrupting his officers and men.

"I am appealing to the members of the public, do not corrupt my policemen. It takes two to tangle. If they ask you for bribe and you refuse to give, and you have avenues where your grievances can be ventilated, I do not see any reason why you should give them bribe. 

"The Commissioner of Police is there, the Area Commander is there, the DPO is there, our office is there and the technical platform (to report corrupt police) is there. We have opened ourselves to public accountability. So, you cannot now say the whole problem should be put on the police force."

Arase made the appeal while fielding questions from journalists during his meeting with deputy inspectors general of police, assistant inspectors general of police and command commissioners of police where he called on the public not to corrupt police personnel by giving them bribes.

In his address during the meeting, the police boss announced the arrest of two of the suspected kidnap kingpins responsible for the spate of the kidnappings in Ekiti state.

While noting that cultists operating in Edo had been “technically amputated” with the arrest and transfer to Abuja of11 suspects believed to be their leaders, Arase, however, described Kogi, Rivers and Benue as problematic states in terms of crime and promised to massively deploy personnel to those states within the next 48 hours to tackle the problem.

“We are sending the message loud and clear that we, police, will not allow any miscreant to turn any state in the federation into a lawless state. Wherever we find them, miscreants, we will pursue them; we will arrest and prosecute them," Arase said.