The Nigerian Police needs to be more sensitive to us

Men of the Nigerian police force

This weekend has seen young Nigerians tweet about some of the activities of the police special unit Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).






Twitter was filled with (unconfirmed) tales of extortion, shootings, harassment and illegal detentions. Now, we all know that SARS has been causing havoc on the streets for a while now. This is not why the institution is getting the flop of the week.

The insensitivity of the Nigerian police is what has many people riled up. On Thursday, November 30, 2017, the Assistant Commissioner of the Police Abayomi Shogunle was again made a crazy comment.

Abayomi Shogunle (PM News)

"To all those having frightening dreams- “shot/beaten by police”. Pray to God not to allow it happen + avoid areas where police are responding to incidents in real life. If such dreams persist, GO SEE A PSYCHIATRIST. We only deal with real-life police complaints @PoliceNG_PCRRU" he tweeted.





Now at a time when people are airing their frustrations about the police force, this sounds like an insensitive tweet. Our police officers should make our lives easier and safer but this is what we get instead- bants from a high ranking official.

SARS operatives (streetrequest)

Police brutality is a serious issue in Nigeria and Abayomi Shogunle has done little to assure us that the force is doing something about it. His tweet was badly timed and shows how far our police officers are from what is being said about them.