Nigeria’s leading survey and polling firm, NOIPolls says that police brutality on Nigerians is prevalent, citing recent media reports on Nigerian police brutality and the controversy over the death of a Remo Stars Football Club’s player, Tiyamu Kazeem in Sagamu in southwestern Ogun state.
According to the report of its findings on past poll on “Police Brutality” released on Tuesday in Abuja, 40 percent of Nigerians interviewed reported that they have either been or know someone who has been brutalised by the Nigeria police personnel.
The poll, which was conducted in the week commencing May 6th 2019, assessed the opinions of Nigerians regarding police personnel brutality, illegal activities and suggestions on ways to curb the menace, revealed that a large proportion of Nigerians nationwide disclosed that the increase in the case of police brutality has led to intense pressure from the public to reform the Nigeria Police and that the Nigerian Senate had passed the Police Reform Bill in April 2019 for presidential assent.
It noted that one of the outstanding features of the bill is that it provides internal disciplinary mechanism for any police officer that maltreats or kills an innocent citizen.
“Further findings revealed that a larger proportion of Nigerians (34 percent) cited ‘poor police welfare’ as the major cause of police brutality on citizens. Other mentions include ‘inadequate training’ of the Nigeria police personnel (17 percent), ‘lack of contentment and greed’ (11 percent), ‘lack of experience’ and the issue of ‘corruption’ within the Nigeria Police Force amongst other mentions.
“Therefore, there is need for the deployment of a strict measure to curb the menace. The onus now lies on the executive to assent to the Police Reform Bill as a matter of urgency to ensure that this act is put to an end. The figure below gauged the prevalence of police brutality in Nigeria and 77 percent of the respondents stated that the issue of police brutality in Nigeria is prevalent whereas, 23 percent claimed it is not prevalent,” it said.
“There is need for a far-reaching measure to curb the menace. The increase in the case of Police brutality has led to intense pressure from the public to reform the Nigerian Police Force and as such the Nigerian Senate passed the Police Reform Bill for presidential assent,“ it concluded.
GIK/APA