Complaint Response Unit (CRU) of the Nigeria Police Force has continued to make progress towards curbing misconduct among officers and men of the Force. CHIZOBA OGBECHE xrays the unit’s report for 3rd quarter.
The Complaint Response Unit (CRU) of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) was established in November 2015 by the former Inspector General of Police (IGP), Solomon Arase, with the aim of taking advantage of the public towards receiving and processing complaints from members of the public and giving feedback on actions taken on such complaints.
The unit has since continued to perform this mandate with surprising response from members of the public leading to speedy resolution of contentious issues.
According to report released by the CPU for the 3rd quarter of 2016 about 324 cases were resolved out of the 405 complaints made against the police by members of the public between July 1st and September 30th, 2016.
CRU report stated that 51 out of cases reported during period under review were found to be false while 30 cases are still pending.
A remarkable achievement of the unit within the period under review is the recovery of N2.7million bribe from an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP).
The report signed by Head of CRU, acting ACP Abayomi Shogunle, showed that the sum of N2,750,000 bribe money was recovered from the senior officer serving in one of the state commands after a complaint was made to the CRU through a telephone call.
Disciplinary procedures, it said were on-going against the erring officer who had been arrested in respect of the case upon which the bribe money was collected, has since been handed over to the relevant agency for prosecution.
The unit head further disclosed that the case was referred to the X-Squad of the NPF for necessary action in line with the directive by the Inspector General of Police, IGP Ibrahim Idris, that X-Squad be included as part of CRU responding agents.
It would be recalled that IGP Idris in his determination to ensure more effective response to cases of alleged police professional misconduct had included the State Provost Marshals, Officer Commanding (OC) State Intelligence Bureau (SIB), and the Control-Room were included as part of the CRU responding agents.
CRU report for the quarter, also reflected sharp reduction in complaints against the police during the period under review, which was said to be linked to the fact that officers and men of the force were becoming more professional in carrying out their duties.
The reduction in complaints, the report said, was as a result of capacity training programmes, the zero tolerance of the current police leadership to all forms of professional misconduct and the police awareness that the public can now easily report unsatisfactory police conducts.
The report which is available on the CRU website: http://npf.gov.ng/complaint/report/POLICE_CRU_2016_Q3_REPORT.PDF, indicated that 405 cases were reported in quarter 3 as against 906 cases reported in quarter 2 and 1054 cases in quarter 1.
Rivers state Police Command topped the state ranking regarding complaints received with a total number of 78 cases, followed by Lagos with 72 and FCT with 48 cases.
Similarly, over half of the complaints against the police came from four state commands: Rivers, Lagos, FCT and Anambra, which accounts for 55.06% of complaints during the period under review, the report indicated.
Remarkably no single complaint was reported against the police in five northern state commands of Bauchi, Jigawa, Katsina, Kebbi and Sokoto as well as in the Osun state command.
According to the report, Kebbi state stood out as the only command that has not recorded any complaint against the police since the inception of the CRU.
The report further indicated that professional misconduct topped the complaint distribution category with 154 entries, followed by demanding money for bail with 144 entries.
More complaints, the report showed, were received via telephone calls with 294 cases, while 55 cases were reported through the WhatsApp; 20 through the Twitter; 20 through email; 19 through Facebook; six through SMS; two through BBM; just as eight other cases were reported through petitions and media publications.
It further stated that in line with international best practices of building police-public trust, monitoring safeguards are in place to ensure protection of human rights during policing operations.
According to the unit, more collaboration activities are scheduled with stakeholders, local and international groups, in the last quarter of the year, just as plans were underway to increase the level of awareness about the CRU at the grassroots.
The report also stated that in a bid to ensure strict adherence to CRU guiding principle of: “No to Impunity,” IGP Idris has directed all police formations across the country to make sure complaints forwarded from CRU are resolved within 24hours.
CRU head said the public can reach the unit at any time of the day through the following platforms: Call Only 0805 700 0001, 0805 700 0002; SMS Only 0805 700 0003; WhatsApp 0805 700 0003; BBM PIN 58A2B5DE; Twitter: @PoliceNG_CRU; Facebook: @npfcomplaint; email: [email protected] or [email protected]; website: www.npf.gov.ng/complaint.
A remarkable achievement of the unit within the period under review is the recovery of N2.7million bribe from an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP)
