Police Brutality: Ex-Police Officer Effiom Ogwa Cautions Security Agencies

A former senior police officer, Effiom Enang Ogwa has cautioned authorities of security agencies, especially the police, not to issue arms to their personnel whose states of mind are disturbed by family, emotional issues, or are generally unstable.

Effiom Ogwa explained that many of the personnel were not originally trained to carry guns but circumstances in the force necessitated superiors to move untrained personnel to beats they are not trained for which reasons they end up wreaking havoc at such beats.

Ogwa was a guest of Sparkling FM radio Tuesday morning on their flagship discussion programme, Let’s Talk Nigeria.

Ogwa, now a security expert, spoke on the backdrop of incessant misuse of arms by men of the force and harassment of members of the public.

“Not all members of the security forces, including the police, are trained to carry arms on duty. Many are trained in other professional duties not related to arm bearing, even though they should also have ideas about arms handling.

“Many police personnel who bear arms should not do so because of their states of mind.

“A situation where trained professionals are incessantly moved to other beats makes them less useful as they may not be able to properly handle the new tasks at such ‘strange’ beats satisfactorily,” he said.

Against popular belief, he also insisted that state governors should never be referred to as chief security officers of their states because they cannot give commands to police personnel.

He maintained that it is the police who are constitutionally charged to maintain law and order, including the security of lives and properties.

According to him, the state governors are merely to coordinate the services and share the security votes with the different agencies.

“The state governors do not have the power to summon state security meetings but they are to pass through various commissioners of police to do so.

“It is wrong for governors to assume or believe that they are in charge of security in their states. That’s very incorrect.

“They cannot even order tho police to action. Only CPs can give such orders. Even the military is not in charge of security but complements the police.

“The police are not under the control of state governors but CP,” he added.

He lamented the lean population of the police personnel, saying their strength is grossly inadequate for the over 200 million Nigerians.