Posted by By Yemi Akinsuyi on
Police Command in Lagos State yesterday removed wandering from its criminal code as an offence against the law of the land.
Police Command in Lagos State yesterday removed wandering from its criminal code as an offence against the law of the land.
There has been reported cases of police harassment on Lagosians, who go around at night by the police. While some were said to have been arrested and detained for the offence of wandering, not too lucky ones were being left in the cell for weeks and days, and when there was no one to bail, they were said to have been taking to the prison for such offence.
Speaking at the second quarterly interactive forum on Enhancing Police Accountability in the state, organised by CLEEN Foundation in collaboration with the state police command and Police Community Relations Committee (PCRC), the police spokesperson, DSP Olubode Ojajuni, said hence forth, Lagosians were free to move at any time without any molestation from any quarter.
Ojajuni, however, said so long such movement does not have criminal intonation, but that if needs be, the police would engage in stop and search, advising members of the public to cooperate with the security agents.
"I want to state here categorically that hence forth, Lagosians are free to move at any time they want. After all, there is freedom of movement. No policeman should disturb people's movement, except where there is a report of crime at a particular area, Here, they are excepted to raid the place. This is done to be able to remove the wheat from the shaft. Once this is done, whoever is not a criminal, after the normal interrogations, would be released free. No policeman should demand money from such a person's bail. It is against the hierarchy's law," he said.
Speaking on the activities of some miscreants in the force, the PPRO exonerated the police from such blame, saying those policemen were bad from their respective homes and that they just continued with their trend in the uniform.
"I am still surprised that once a policeman misbehaves, the public blamed such on the generality of the force. I came from a home before joining the force and my background has a lot of influence on the way I carry out my duty as a police officer. I want to believe that whoever is bad at home would surely be bad wherever he finds himself, even in the bank. Any police officer or man engaging himself in a criminal activity would have been a criminal from his home long before he joined the force and he should be blamed for his offence, not the entity of the force.
"The new law for such a policeman, rather than dismissing him, as the customs was, is that his Divisional Police Officer (DPO) would detain him for three days and later bring him out for a rigorous training, so that when next such opportunity comes up for him to commit crime, he would think twice," he said.