IT took the extortion of the Chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, Musa Aliyu, for Nigeria to once again confront an ugly truth that ordinary citizens have lived with for decades.
On Monday, the Federal Capital Territory Commissioner of Police, Ahmed Sanusi, announced that four police officers operating an illegal checkpoint in the FCT allegedly stopped Aliyu’s vehicle and compelled him to part with N53,000. They processed the payment through a Point-of-Sale terminal.
Apparently oblivious to their victim’s identity, the officers carried on with the confidence and brazenness that only years of impunity can breed.
This is the ugly face of Nigerian policing.
The incident is remarkable not because it is unusual, but because it happened to someone whose office exists to combat corruption. It is difficult to imagine a more symbolic illustration of how deeply police extortion has become institutionalised in Nigeria.
If the
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