kwa Ibom Police Command has dismissed four policemen said to have been involved in extortion.
Speaking Tuesday at this year’s Nigeria Union of Journalists Press Week, Akwa Ibom Council, DSP Bala Elkana, Police Public Relations Officer in Akwa Ibom described them as bad eggs that gave the Nigeria Police Force a bad image.
Elkana observed “The other angle we are looking at is: no policeman can rise above the society. Every police force you see is a product of that society, whether good or bad. If the society is corrupt you will have a corrupt police. If it is upright, you will have an upright police force. It depends on what society wants, every community has the right to decide the kind of police it wants, whether the good, the bad or the ugly one.
He said “The police are there for them. And whatever you do for the police you are doing it for the community not for an individual. The communities that burn down a police station, they will be the ones without a police station. We will deploy the policemen to another station and leave without one.”
According to him, “I have said quite a number of good things about my relationship with journalists, in terms of crime reporting, I feel we need more time to come together and talk on the nitty-gritty of crime reporting because it is different from any other reporting. You can set the state on fire with just one report, which is why crime reporting is not ordinary it requires a lot of training, commitment, passion and patriotism.”
The PPRO warned that any policeman in Akwa Ibom State who abets election malpractices during the forthcoming local government elections in the state risks instant dismissal from the Nigeria Police Force, saying “Allow the people to decide who their leader is. Don’t be part of the problem; be part of the solution.”
He thanked the press for cooperating with the police force, exhorting “if you have cause to report a policeman please call me, I will fight your cause. I will defend you, but my appeal is we should respect the law also. A journalist with expired particulars will not publish arrested with expired papers.
“Whatever the laws says, you should do please do. Don’t confront a policeman. Never argue with a man with a gun, be it a policeman or even an armed robber, because you don’t know what is going on in his mind at that time. Anything can provoke him to pull the trigger,’ he added.
