In keeping to its mandate of receiving and resolving cases of professional misconduct against police officers, the rebranded Public Complaint Rapid Response Unit (PCRRU) of the Nigeria Police in the fourth quarter of 2016 has successfully resolved 636 cases reported against police officers nationwide between October and December, 2016.
ACP Abayomi Shogunle, Assistant Commissioner of Police – PCRRU in a statement made available to the press on Wednesday 24th January, 2017 in Abuja states that the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris NPM, mni has instituted a reward mechanism to reward State Police Commands with zero case of police professional misconduct.
In the fourth quarter of 2016, a total number of 822 complaints were reported from across the federation with Lagos State Command maintaining top on the chart with 153 cases representing 18.62% while Kebbi State command has no recorded single case since inception of the Unit.
Out of the reported cases, a police sergeant serving in FCT who was proven guilty in a case of extortion was demoted to the rank of Corporal while eight other officers received varying degree of sanctions due to complaints made to the Unit. Also, police officers captured in recent viral online videos alleged of misconduct have been identified, apprehended and required departmental actions are ongoing.
FCT and Rivers Command closely followed Lagos with total number of 130 and 116 cases respectively. Kebbi and Jigawa State commands remained at the bottom with no case reported against them while Taraba and Katsina state commands recorded one case each in the period under review.
The report also revealed that 156 out of the reported cases were found to be false which is the highest number of false cases so far recorded as against 96 in Q1, 35 in Q2 and 51 in Q3. 30 out of the reported cases are still under investigation just as phone calls top channels of public report to the unit with 591 calls.
ACP Shogunle further disclosed that to support the “Change Begins With Me” initiative of the Federal Government, the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris has mandated the PCRRU to also attend to complaints of abuse of office/corrupt practices involving public/civil servant at all levels of government stressing that the unit call centre at Force Headquarters, Abuja is being upgraded to meet up with the added task.
Other activities of the unit under the period under review include distribution of PCRRU information flyers in English and local languages to all 774 Local Government Areas which was led by the IGP himself, nationwide grass root sensitization campaign by Command Commissioners of Police (CP) and Divisional Police Officers (DPO) as well as Radio/TV jingles which has increased public awareness about PCRRU leading to high public patronage via the various PCRRU contact platforms.
It would be recalled that the Police authority had established the PCRRU to enable aggrieved members of the public reach out to the authority through 24hrs interactive PCRRU platforms – Phone Call, SMS, WhatsApp, BBM, Twitter, Facebook and E-mail, to seek redress in cases of alleged police professional misconduct. The PCRRU is one-of-a-kind in Africa.
It is on record that the unit since inception has ensured timely investigations of reported complaint and appropriate punishment of erring police officers.
Members of the public can reach the Unit via- Calls Only: 0805 700 0001, 0805 700 0002 | SMS and WhatsApp Only: 0805 700 0003 | BBM: 58A2B5DE Twitter: @PoliceNG_PCRRU | Facebook: www.facebook.com/PolicePCRRU | Email: complaint@npf.gov.ng OR PolicePCRRU@gmail.com | Website: www.npf.gov.ng/complaint
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