By Oluwasore Alabi
Nigerians are getting really mixed up about what the Nigeria Police Force and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’re supposed to do. This is because police officers are stopping people all the time to look at their phones and say they are committing fraud.
That is really the job of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. The Nigeria Police Force and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission have jobs and it is confusing when the police do things that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission should be doing.
The police have a job to do. They have to keep people safe and make sure everyone follows the law. This means they have to protect people and their things stop crimes from happening and deal with situations like robbery, kidnapping and violence. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission or EFCC for short has a job.
The EFCC was made to look into and punish people who commit financial crimes. These crimes include things, like internet fraud, money laundering, identity theft and cyber crimes. The police and the EFCC have roles and these roles are clearly stated in the law.
The law says what the police should do and what the EFCC should do. These things are not the same. Police officers are setting up checkpoints over big cities and highways. They do not use these checkpoints to catch people with guns. Instead they use them to stop people.
The police officers then ask for their phones. They look through messages on the phones. They also check the bank apps on the phones. After that they accuse the people of cheating. This is a bad practice. It has led to many people being forced to give money to the police.
Many people have been scared. Detained for no reason. A lot of people in Nigeria have talked about how they were forced to send money to the police away. They did this so they would not be arrested. The problem is that they did not even do anything. The police just wanted money from them.
Many Nigerians have had this experience, with the police at the checkpoints. Police officers have been known to leave the scene of a robbery or show up late when something bad is happening. They still find time to stop peoples cars and look through their phones.
People were really upset about this during the protests. They were not just angry about the police being mean. Also about how they use their power to get what they want. The police have said they would make changes times but nothing seems to be getting better.
The Inspector General of Police has said in public that police officers are not supposed to look at someones phone without a reason but that is not what is happening on the streets. The police are still searching peoples phones even though they are not supposed to and that is the problem, with the EndSARS issue and the police.
Cybercrime investigations are very complicated. Need people who are good with technology, digital forensics and the law. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission is trained to handle these things. When the police try to investigate fraud without the permission they make things worse for everyone. They do not make people safer. They do not help justice. The bad people take advantage of this confusion.
Meanwhile people who have done nothing get treated unfairly and harassed. Cybercrime investigations and the people who do them, like the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission have to be careful and do things correctly. Meanwhile people are still really scared.
They do not feel safe. There is a lot of banditry, kidnapping, armed robbery and communal violence happening. It is causing people to lose their lives. The police should be paying a lot of attention to these things. Trying to gather information to stop them.
When the police are busy trying to catch people they think are committing fraud so they can get some money quickly the communities are left without any protection and the criminals become even bolder. Banditry and kidnapping and armed robbery and communal violence are the things that the police should be focusing on.
The police are supposed to help people. When they misuse their power it hurts the trust that people have in them. People start to think that the police are not there to protect them but to scare them.
The police need people to work with them to keep everyone safe and that cannot happen when people are afraid of the police and feel like they are being treated unfairly by them. Law enforcement and the public need to work and this is not possible when the public is afraid of law enforcement.
The solution is really not that hard to figure out. The police need to focus on what they’re supposed to do which is to keep people safe and secure. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, the EFCC should be the ones to deal with fraud and cybercrime. They should only work with the police when they really need to and they have to do it by the book.
If police officers overstep their boundaries they should get in trouble for it not get a slap on the wrist that does not do anything to change things. The police and the EFCC like the EFCC have to work to make sure that the people who commit fraud and cybercrime these crimes are held accountable.
If Nigeria wants safer streets and a justice system people can trust, agencies must respect their roles. When everyone does the job they were created to do, the country is safer. When they do not, insecurity and abuse thrive.
The question Nigerians must keep asking is simple, who benefits when roles are ignored and citizens suffer.
