- What could have led four policemen to arrest someone for being in possession of old Naira notes?
Why would policemen arrest someone for being in possession of old naira notes? Could that have been due to ignorance? Or, was it a ploy toward some sinister motive? The police authorities should be interested in this matter, especially in view of the various unpalatable experiences of some Nigerians who had been arrested by policemen only to be slammed with some phantom charges when the police officers who arrested them discovered that they had reached a cul-de-sac.
A National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member, simply identified as Temisan, was arrested by policemen at a checkpoint by the City Capital Hotel in Abuja at about 11.00 p.m. and accused of being in possession of old N20 and N50 notes, which they claimed was a crime. It appeared that was the only item in her wallet that they found ‘incriminating,’ after searching her handbag without finding any contraband. Temisan was returning from a dinner date with some of her friends when she was arrested. The policemen dismissed the Taxify she was riding in and reportedly threatened to take her to a place where they would tell her her offence.
Sensing danger, the lady called her mother, Bunmi Dipo-Salami, with whom she had spoken barely three minutes before. The mother then told her to give the phone to the policemen, a thing that did not go down well with one of them who asked why she thought they would be interested in speaking with her mother. According to the mother, “I heard the policeman say ‘stupid girl, who is taking your phone? So, reluctantly, he took the phone and I introduced myself as her mum and requested to know what they were charging her for.
“That was when Officer Nnaman told me, ‘we found old currency in her bag so we are taking her to the station’. When I asked where, he couldn’t tell me any particular location. All he said was ‘well, we are still at City Capitol Hotel for now, but we will soon go’.
Bunmi Dipo-Salami summarised her apprehension thus: “When he said that, I saw flashes of the manifestations of the war on Nigerian women; women arrested on trumped-up charges and raped in custody, commercial sex workers arrested for the sexual pleasure of the police and detained for days. I saw women, who were killed for trying to resist their police abductors and labelled armed robbers or girlfriends of criminals, accused of illegal possession of hard drugs and so on and so forth. I told God that Temisan will not be added to the statistics.”
Equally sensing danger, the mother put a call through to a deputy commissioner of police friend, who told her that having old currencies was not an offence. It was the DCP who spoke with the policemen who were now trembling, before they released the lady. Although the DCP, according to the report, apologised to the mother and daughter on behalf of the police force, the matter should not be allowed to die on that note.
We say this in view of the fact that many Nigerians, particularly ladies and women arrested the same way the corps member was arrested, have lived to tell tales of woe about their experiences in police custody, just as narrated by Bunmi Dipo-Salami. This is the essence of our call on the police authorities to find out why, in the first place, the policemen at the checkpoint arrested Temisan. Don’t they know what constitutes a crime? If they don’t, this is bad enough for the police force. And we suggest the police hierarchy should ensure regular trainings for their personnel so they don’t keep embarrassing the police the way the policemen who arrested Temisan did. Those of them who are untrainable should be shown the way out before they put deep holes in the purse of the police through avoidable judgment debts.
Our other fear is even the more worrisome. Could the policemen have arrested the corps member for other sinister motives? All these explain why the matter should not be laid to rest without a thorough investigation. Temisan’s mother could have been able to get her out of the trap (if actually one was set for her daughter). But how many other Nigerians are so connected?
