The more the Inspector General (IG) of Police, Tunji Disu tries to sanitise the Nigeria Police Force, the more the unscrupulous elements in the force try to frustrate his efforts.
How on earth can a Divisional Police Officer (DPO) and his men allow a secret cult group to renovate a police station?
This is what Nigerians witnessed recently when news broke that the members of a secret cult group renovated a police station at the Abuloma Okuro Junction in Rivers State.
It was gathered that the cultists reportedly unveiled the renovated police station during a ceremony attended by some police officers.
During the ceremony, leaders of the cult groups, dressed in their colours, were seen in a viral video inspecting the completed job and the new furniture they installed.
Though the DPO and some other serving officers have since been suspended, the audacity of the cult group in coming out openly to sponsor the renovation without any arrest by the police shows how deeply compromised the police have become.
It shows how the Force has irredeemably compromised their integrity, discipline and professional standards. It further confers legitimacy, recognition or acceptance on suspected cult groups or other unlawful organisations. That the same police that always advise the people to reject cultism, to allow this is unbelievable.
Police facilities are public institutions established for the protection of citizens and the enforcement of law and must not become platforms through which criminal groups seek public validation or influence.
No matter how it is viewed, allowing cultism within security institutions is totally condemnable.
The police as an institution is that the common man’s last hope in the fight against crime and must never be infiltrated or compromised by cult groups. If cultists renovate or build police stations, will the police still arrest them? What courage would they have to arrest them?
While it is a welcome development for legitimate community support for improving police facilities, it is certainly not for an outlawed group to offer such a support.
The police authorities must sanction DPO and also identify and sanction police officers who are members of the cult group before Nigerians wake up one day and hear that armed robbers or bandits have renovated another police station.