Barely two weeks after a police sergeant, Chris Omeleze, was dismissed after being caught on video demanding a bribe of N25,000, another footage showing a policewoman negotiating a bribe of N100 has surfaced on YouTube.
The video footage, which circulated on the video-sharing website on Monday, showed the policewoman sitting in a commercial bus which she had apprehended at a yet-to-be identified location in Lagos.
The driver and the conductor, who had passengers in their bus, were seen making efforts to pacify the policewoman so that they could be allowed to continue with their journey; but their pleas went unheeded.
Soon, the driver got infuriated and slammed the policewoman, saying, “Don’t abuse me because of N100. How much is N100? Me I don pass N100.”
The policewoman replied, “E no concern me. Pay me my own money.”
When the driver realised that she was hell-bent on collecting the bribe, he asked his bus conductor to give her the money.
“Give her N100. I will return it to you later,” the driver said in Yoruba language. As soon as the driver handed down the instruction, the policewoman alighted from the bus and walked towards the conductor.
Just as the two were moving towards the back of the bus, a voice from the background lamented, “You pay for police, you pay for agbero.” The policewoman was then seen with another female colleague of hers walking away from the scene.
The video was shot by someone sitting in the bus but it was uploaded on YouTube by one Afro Finlandia.
Meanwhile, a social media outrage has trailed the development, just as the video has become a sensation on various social networking sites. Those who watched it on a popular online forum, nairaland.com, where it was shared, described the scene as ridiculous.
The respondents said it was unfortunate that the bad eggs in the police had yet to learn some lessons despite the fact that one of them was summarily dismissed recently.
A member of the forum, Chisom, lamented, “This is bad! Our police force again? Na wa o! Make them change na!”
Another respondent urged Nigerians who took the bold step of filming the video to do more so as to restore sanity to the Nigeria Police. “I’m impressed. Bribery and corruption must be eradicated. We have to help the government in eradicating this crime,” one Chingydaboss stated.
One Olucheye also noted, “Great! It’s technology against corrupt police officers. Hopefully, we’ll help the police authorities (to) fish out a large number of bad eggs in the system. Video-enabled phones is a tool every Nigerian should have now.”
“Nice one. These usel… police. Camera phone is their undoing. People should also get hidden cameras in their cars too. These police go dey shake when time to collect money come. Most of them will just start staying at home instead of creating illegal roadblocks to extort money from people,” another member of the forum with the name Baby, said.
However, the thought that a policewoman could insist on collecting N100 bribe from a motorist further unsettled some viewers. This, they argued, showed the rot in the police system, and many of them advocated drastic change.
Commenting on the forum, a Nigerian with the name Jkendy observed, “What a policeman can do, a policewoman can do worse. Thank goodness, they were caught by civilians.”
Those who saw the video also shared their various experiences with police officers in their various communities. They posited that since the policewomen’s faces were captured in the video, the police authorities should take necessary action.
The development has also made Nigerians to call for appropriate remuneration for the rank and file of the police, as well as adequate funding of the institution.
“If she is sacked, how will she earn a living? This might have a negative impact on those who depend on her. Why don’t we people also put as much pressure on government to increase the pay of policemen and women as they are putting on the campaign of exposing the corrupt officers?” one Litmus noted.
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