Toheeb Amuda, Esq., LL.M (London)

The police system appears irredeemable. The expectations I had of Mr. Disu @TunjiDisu1, based on hearsay testimonies about his record, are waning. New sheriff in town. The same old system. Almost everything about the system seems out of place, right from what they send to people as invitations. It feels like an ambush and a needless game of hide-and-seek. I would expect that when you invite someone, the person has adequate information about what he is being invited for. Their invitations are usually nebulous, needlessly so. I consider this a ploy to unduly prolong the process. For instance, if I knew that I had been invited in relation to an "alleged case of conduct likely to breach public peace" because I threatened to kill a neighbour's goat, I would be well advised and could proceed with the necessary information and even witnesses. They will never do that. What you see about the police in Nollywood movies is exactly what the police are, if not even a step below: "What is my offence?" "When you get to our station, you will know." I have only seen very few invitations in which they briefly hinted at the actual basis of the invitation, and those were cases involving "big" people. Whether you are arresting or inviting a person, they are entitled to be informed of the basis of that arrest or invitation. They are also entitled to call their lawyers or family members to inform them of their arrest. People try to call relatives during arrests and are denied the opportunity. I was at a police station last year when a young man was bundled in. After several pleas, he was allowed to call his brother. While searching for the number, one Inspector Victor delivered a deafening slap to the young man. "You dey destroy evidence!" I was very enraged, and the scorn was reflected on my face that when he was trying to justify his inexcusable behaviour, I turned my face away from him. It turned out that the fellow had not deleted any evidence and, in fact, was completely innocent of what they had brought him in for. The police are a hopeless institution. I say that advisedly. Its unsuitability for redemption, in my view, became apparent very recently, when colleagues who double as police officers were defending police demands for money from complainants. It is one thing to do that in private. It is the height of shamelessness and impunity to speak for its propriety in public. By way of interjection, I am not sure that we fully grasp what it means for a police officer to load a gun and shoot a suspect at close range. That young man's murder troubles me. Even butchers who are licensed to slaughter animals are more gracious and cautious. That video and the action is captures should worry us all, but we have moved on. A lawyer who doubles as a police officer should be a check on the system, a corrective lens through which the system should see things clearly and do them right. Alas! If the Pope becomes a police officer, he is a police officer. Any practitioner who is committed to ensuring that things are done properly and is well trained in law would find the police's modus operandi nauseating and consistently embarrassing.