The Nigeria Police

Who will guard the guards? – Ancient Roman saying.

EVEN for a country that stumbles from one scandal to the other, it was shocking to read about the arrest of 45 prospective police recruits, who wanted to make the marks through unwholesome means.


During re-screening of the recruits for training, 45 of them were discovered to have hired people to write the examinations for them last March. What gave them away was that the pictures of those who took the examinations were different from theirs. The police explained that seven of the suspects escaped.

“A situation where people who are supposed to be trained as law enforcement officers are ab initio criminals or persons with questionable character is bad and unacceptable,” Mr. Mike Okiro, the Inspector General of Police said of the incident.

While investigations continue, it is startling that the suspects had the temerity to pull this one off against the police, the organisation that is to arrest also arrests candidates for examination malpractices.

This is not an isolated incident. Mr. Okiro could have before him a massive scandal that would require further scrutiny to unravel. How were the suspects able to take the examinations at their various centres without being detected? Who were their collaborators in the police? What are the chances that some others who got into the police this manner are not in service? Has the search for these criminals ended with the apprehension of the 45?

Who in the police offers protection to officers who engage in this act? For how long could this have been going on? Is it possible that some officers who got into the force in this way are the ones who recruited the suspects? Perhaps, the escape of seven of these suspects indicates the unseriousness that the police attached to the offence.


Vast consequences await the country if this case is not handled well. Once criminals are able to take over the police, the jump in crime rate will reduce today’s situation to a child’s play. Police personnel who join the force in this twisted manner have set out from the beginning to create criminal havens in the force for themselves and their sponsors.


These are the type of police personnel who will be ineffective in their duties because they know that their backgrounds give room for them to be blackmailed.


How this case is resolved will have great bearing on the police personnel of the future. At a time the country’s crime combating system is overdue for overhauling, it is instructive that criminals are not afraid to carry out their activities against the police, an institution they should otherwise dread.

This scandal hints at the poor background checks, if any that the police conducts on those entrusted with the security of the nation.


If the police cannot protect itself from criminals, it is probably time we searched for an outfit that would protect the police from itself because it is important to guard the guards.