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Now that Buhari Has Cowed Nigerians, What Next by Dele Momodu
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Fellow Nigerians, let me take you back to the year 1998, the 7th day of the month of July to be precise. Chief Moshood Abiola had just been pronounced dead, just like that, and everything, and everywhere, was topsy-turvy. We were numb beyond words. A new leader had taken power the month before, after the sudden death of the maximum ruler, General Sani Abacha. How can two antagonists die in similar fashion, one month apart, we wondered, ponderously.
Anyway, as with everything Nigerian, life soon moved on, without much ado. A few irate students, led by Omoyele Sowore, ranted and raved but their fireballs soon disintegrated and dissolved into ashes. Those of us in exile were left stupefied. In all honesty, we had all individually and collectively given our best to the struggle, but our best was simply not enough. Man and God had contrived to deprive us of our greatest democratic moment as a nation. It does not appear that our democratic nous and ethos will ever reach the dizzying heights of those glorious days! We lost Abiola and we lost the mandate freely given to him by the good people of Nigeria. So, we were back to square one.
Tokunbo Afikuyomi and I offered ourselves as Guinea pigs and meandered our way back home the same way we had navigated our ways through the forest of a thousand daemons to escape from the Gulag and what appeared at the time a the most brutishly ruthless dictatorship in Nigeria. What we found out on our return was unbelievable and shocking. Our politicians had barely waited for Abiola to be interred before they started their stock in trade, jostling for power and lucre.
We returned to London, very frustrated about our experience at home. What we suffered through the labyrinth of madness called Seme border is another matter entirely and a story for another day. Back in England, some of our compatriots were still blowing grammar. Saying we must fight the military. We no go gree, like students’ union leaders love to chant every now and then, during Aluta struggles in our diverse universities. The difference was we were not students, and this was real life, off campuses.
We decided to tell our elders in the Diaspora the gospel truth. Those at home were not in sync with those fighting from abroad. The exposure and experience we had all gained during our sojourn and desperate struggle for truth and justice seemed totally lost on our compatriots at home. Our vision and mission were quite clearly totally divergent. One thing led to another and many of the NADECO Chieftains agreed to return home. It was over, as simple as that. That was the reality.
The regime of General Abdulsalami Abubakar decided it would hand over government to a civilian government under one year and it stuck rigidly to its transition timetable despite serious temptations to extend its set tenure. If we thought the military reign was reaching its terminal end, we were dead wrong. The military was merely beginning to prepare for tenure elongation albeit in civilian toga. The first election was therefore won by a retired military General, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo. And it became obvious that the military establishment was not yet ready to relax and reduce its iron grip on Nigeria’s jugular. Most of those who paraded the corridors of power were military men in civilian garb. Four years later, President Obasanjo sought another term and got it. Meanwhile, throughout all this, there was no provision for the inclusion of the NADECO fighters as reparation for the dastardly acts against Abiola and his supporters.
Let’s fast forward a little. After a controversial third term attempt for President Obasanjo by some political jobbers fell flat, a brother of a former military General, Alhaji Umaru Musa Yar’Adua was brought on board to take over the reins of power. It was like a change of baton in an exclusive relay race by the military. By sheer act of providence, President Yar’Adua took critically I’ll and died in office. This was how fate threw up a complete stranger to the military establishment and virtual lone ranger on the balcony of power, Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, as President.
It was obvious some members of a most powerful cabal were not happy about the emergence of Jonathan, a man from one of the politically disadvantaged and handicapped regions of Nigeria, the South South. The Ijaw heritage of Jonathan was meant to be his Achilles heel but the man trudged on till he completed the tenure of his departed boss. Of course, against all odds, he contested for his own term and won. That was in 2011. I was privileged to have been a Presidential candidate at that time.
President Jonathan’s tenure was marred by many turbulent upheavals, the worst being the Boko Haram menace. There were also instances of reckless looting of the national treasury and well documented profligacy by his PDP apparatchiks. President Jonathan shot himself in the foot and incurred the wrath of the people when in the midst of horrendous poverty, he sharply increased prices of petroleum products, astronomically. That was the moment many felt he had goofed beyond repair. I was one of those who participated in global protests against his government. I wrote copiously, granted interviews and generally became a thorn in the flesh of the Jonathan administration along with several others. Jonathan was so derided and became butts of jokes everywhere. It was only a matter of time before Jonathan and his motley crew of pillaging merry men would be sacked from power.
I must confess that at the height of our stupidity and naivety, in retrospect, we threw caution to the winds. We wrote off Jonathan despite occasional flashes of genius and inspiration by some members of his team. In the meantime, former Nigerian Head of State, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (RTD.) was repackaged to smell like roses and we all fell for the promise of Eldorado he seemed to hold at the time. I was one of those who jumped on the bandwagon to describe him as a born-again Democrat, despite some strident and persistent warnings by then Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose and others. Perhaps we were fooled by the fact in quick succession he had picked Pentecostal pastors in his running mate in Pastor Tunde Bakare in 2011 and Professor Yemi Osinbajo in 2015. Those who told us that our Hallelujah Choruses were premature and that a leopard can never change its spots were castigated and hounded by those of us who had been converted to what we believed was the new Buhari. We sang in unison that anyone but Jonathan. The rest is history.
Step forward, President Buhari, and take a bow. You rode back triumphantly to power, 30 years after you were sacked by General Ibrahim Babangida. What a feat! The world rejoiced at the final collapse of the PDP behemoth. Our Messiah had come. Most of our prominent challenges would soon evaporate and vamoose. Praise the Lord.
Let me not bore you with how those four years were spent, again, just like that. I leave the judgment of what happened to fellow Nigerians. Excuses became the art and science of governance. The past governments and its ruling party, PDP, was blamed for virtually everything under the sun. No worries. We didn’t expect Buhari to fix the accumulated problems of 16 or more years in a short while. Initially, we thought he would eventually settle down and make inroads into the problems that he had inherited. In any event, we also didn’t expect him to add more to those problems. The little we expected was for Buhari to bring stability to the polity. Again we were wrong.
Everything fell apart and the issue of security which was supposed to be easy meat for our President being a respected, respectable and retired General has become an albatross for the government. So, again, foul. We goofed. I don’t know how to put it any better. With excellent performance, no one would have taken note of a few human rights infringements here and there. We would have tolerated it as the price we probably needed to pay for the stellar performance that we are getting. However, the converse became the case. There are more and more human rights abuses and less and less convincing performances.
Slowly but steadily, a supposed Democratic government began its relentless assault on what our Constitution had enshrined as a government of separation of powers. President Buhari took up the role of an avuncular leader and school headmaster. He simply encroached into territories that were clearly not his to tamper with. If Jonathan had tried a small fraction of this, hell would have known no bigger fury. Yet most of our leaders and elders have disappeared from the radar without as much as a whimper.
You brood of hypocrites! Jonathan was our whipping boy and we trounced, thrashed and trashed him mercilessly. But now, we have lost our voices, it is not just that our criticism has become muted, they have become practically non-existent because the Presidential trolls have been relentless in the way and manner that they have traduced the few honourable critics. Our pen tigers have stopped writing. Our loquacious activists have since absconded and abdicated their once noble responsibilities. Such is life. The oppressed, according to Paulo Freire, only fears and respects his oppressors. We have all seemingly been cowed (no pun intended) into submission. Heaven forbid! That is neither the Nigerian spirit nor psyche!
Was this the Democracy we fought for with sweat and blood. When our human rights crusaders were preaching and pontificating and condoning extrajudicial treatment against the so-called sinners and looters and a few of us pleaded for caution, we were attacked as supporting and promoting corruption. When the government goons went after the judges in the dead of the night and we raised alarm, we were called by names our parents did not give us at birth. When the hooded ones invaded the National Assembly in order to obliterate their sworn enemy, Dr Abubakar Bukola Saraki, they said we have been bought and should shut up. But today the chickens have come home to roost.
Our dear friend, Omoyele Sowore, has been captured, detained and is about to be guillotined for using a word that was just one in the arsenal and vocabulary of this government when it was in opposition. The impugned language is one APC leaders have all used in the past, indeed they have said worse. They have rallied, railed and planned a road demonstration that they had joined openly in the past without any repercussion. The lesson in this for me is that we must all stand firm for the rights of every man at all times, be it saint or sinner. The resort to jungle justice and rabid impunity is what has made it possible for any government to pounce on Omoyele Sowore, a man whose tongue is sharper than razor blade and a pen mightier than atomic bomb but who in reality can never carry a physical weapon and has not encouraged anyone to do so in this ‘revolution’ that he has called for. Indeed, it is only those who are blood-thirsty that would see what is said as anything other than a clamour for a peaceful and democratic change in government within constitutional means. As a matter of fact, the revolution Sowore called for, whatever your interpretation, was not as popular on the streets until a panic stricken government elevated and catapulted it to a dizzying height, a free and cheap publicity that was unsolicited by the conveners.
Now we have succeeded in diverting attention from the killer herdsman who have been on rampage. Is it not an irony that Sowore was arrested for doing virtually nothing bigger than what he and many of us did to support Buhari when he was still one of us. Let us hope in the spirit of this Sallah, that the Federal Government will change its mind, and possibly its style, of killing flies with a sledgehammer…
Barka de Sallah to all our dear Muslims…
Culled from TheBoss Newspapers
An Abuja High Court has remanded Adimike Odirachukwu Anthony, Adimike Chinyere Stephany and Comfort Ajibade in correctional custody for the killing of Adimike Godwin, who is the father of the first two suspects.
According to a statement by the Police Public Relations Officer, FCT Command, SP Josephine Adeh, the case will come up again on September 30, 2026.
The statement, which provided details of the alleged murder and the court process, reads:
The FCT Police Command has arraigned Adimike Odirachukwu Anthony, Adimike Chinyere Stephany and Comfort Ajibade before the FCT High Court 13, in connection with the murder of Adimike Godwin, the father of two of the suspects, in Guzape area of the FCT.
The tragic incident occurred on the 15th of May, 2026, when a distress call was received at the Guzape Divisional Headquarters from a relative of the deceased reporting that he was unresponsive to attempts to reach him. Police detectives promptly responded to the scene and found him lying unconscious in his room with multiple stab wounds. He was immediately rushed to Karu General Hospital, where he was confirmed dead by medical personnel on duty.
Following a discreet and comprehensive investigation ordered by the Commissioner of Police, FCT Command, CP Ahmed Muhammed Sanusi, PhD., FCAI, five suspects were initially arrested in connection with the case, comprising Adimike Odirachukwu Anthony, Adimike Chinyere Stephany, Comfort Ajibade, the deceased’s driver and gateman. Upon the conclusion of investigations, Adimike Odirachukwu Anthony, Adimike Chinyere Stephany and Comfort Ajibade were charged to court.
The suspects were arraigned before the FCT High Court 13 on a four-count charge bordering on criminal conspiracy to commit culpable homicide, culpable homicide, and offences under the Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act. Specifically, all three defendants were jointly charged with conspiracy to commit culpable homicide and culpable homicide in relation to the death of Adimike Godwin. In addition, Adimike Odirachukwu Anthony was separately charged with entering into a same-sex civil union, while Adimike Chinyere Stephany and Comfort Ajibade were jointly charged with entering into a same-sex civil union, contrary to the provisions of the Same Sex Marriage (Prohibition) Act. The Court adjourned the matter to 30th September, 2026 for further proceedings and ordered that the three defendants be remanded at the Suleja Correctional Centre pending the hearing.
The FCT Police Command assures residents of the Federal Capital Territory that it will continue to pursue justice for victims of crime while respecting the constitutional rights of all persons throughout the judicial process.
By Tolulope A. Adegoke
Freedom is humanity’s greatest triumph. But every liberation comes with a hidden bill, and true leadership is defined by how we choose to pay it.
INTRODUCTION: THE UNSEEN PRICE OF OUR GREATEST VICTORY
Freedom is the anthem of our age. From the ballot box to the boardroom to the bedroom, we celebrate the expansion of choice and autonomy. We march for it, vote for it, and sacrifice for it. We have enshrined it in constitutions, encoded it in market regulations, and elevated it as the ultimate human aspiration. Yet, as we applaud each new victory of liberation, we have failed to open the liberty ledger—the silent accounting of what we owe in return. There is a debt we pay, not in currency, but in psychological exhaustion, corporate integrity, and national cohesion. And that debt is now coming due with alarming urgency.
This is not a call to abandon freedom. It is a call to mature beyond the adolescent fantasy that liberation is a one-time event. The truth, as history and contemporary experience demonstrate, is far more sobering. Freedom is not a finish line; it is a perpetual negotiation. Every act of emancipation—whether a nation throwing off colonial rule, a corporation breaking free from regulatory oversight, or an individual shedding the constraints of tradition—sets in motion a cascade of hidden liabilities. These liabilities, if left unacknowledged, metastasize into crises that undermine the very freedom they were meant to secure. True leadership, therefore, must be redefined. It is not measured by the freedom we acquire, but by the weight we bear to preserve it for those who follow.
PART I: THE PARADOX OF PERSONAL FREEDOM – LIBERATION WITHOUT ANCHORS
For the individual, never have we possessed more freedom. We can choose our careers, our relationships, our spiritual paths, and our identities with a latitude that would have been unimaginable to previous generations. Digital platforms connect us to global communities, and economic mobility offers opportunities once reserved for the privileged few. Yet, the data tells a profoundly unsettling story. The World Health Organization reports a 25% surge in anxiety and depressive disorders over the past decade, with young adults bearing the heaviest burden. Suicide rates have climbed in nearly every region of the developed world.
What is driving this contradiction? The answer lies in the erosion of external scaffolding. For millennia, human beings derived their sense of stability, identity, and purpose from traditional structures: family, faith, community, and inherited social roles. These structures provided pre-packaged life scripts. They answered fundamental questions—”Who am I?” “What is my purpose?” “Where do I belong?”—without requiring each individual to reinvent the wheel from scratch.
Liberation dismantled these scripts. In doing so, it granted unprecedented autonomy, but it also transferred the entire burden of existential meaning-making onto the individual. This is what existential philosophers like Jean-Paul Sartre and Viktor Frankl called the “burden of choice.” When we are free to become anything, we are also forced to become something—and that act of creation is terrifying.
The result is decision fatigue, chronic anxiety, and a gnawing sense of inadequacy. Social media amplifies this crisis by presenting a relentless parade of curated perfection, encouraging perpetual comparison and self-doubt. Ironically, freedom from prejudice and tradition has birthed new forms of self-imposed tyranny: the pressure to be perfectly curated, professionally agile, and perpetually happy. We have produced a generation that is free from external chains but enslaved to internal dissonance. This is the hidden cost of personal liberation—and it is a crisis that demands a leadership response.
True leadership in the personal sphere begins with the recognition that autonomy without emotional intelligence is a ship without a rudder. We must institutionalize emotional literacy, teach decision-theory in schools, and destigmatize therapy as a routine practice of self-maintenance. We must also revive what sociologists call “third spaces”—public libraries, community gardens, intergenerational mentorship hubs, and cultural centers—that offer belonging without coercion. These spaces serve as psychological moorings, anchoring us against the storm of radical autonomy. Mental health first aid must become as routine as physical health screenings. This is not a soft indulgence; it is a strategic investment in human capital and social stability.
PART II: THE CORPORATE LEDGER – WHEN MARKET FREEDOM BECOMES MARKET LICENSE
For corporations, freedom has historically been synonymous with market liberalization, deregulation, and shareholder primacy. The victory of corporate liberation—from the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act of 1999 to the global proliferation of private equity—has catalyzed extraordinary innovation. We have witnessed technological revolutions, global supply chains, and wealth creation on an unprecedented scale. Yet, the hidden cost manifests as strategic myopia and systemic ethical erosion.
When oversight is removed, corporate entities frequently conflate freedom with license. The results are not abstract theoretical concerns; they are catastrophic realities. Consider the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster, which was not merely an engineering failure but a failure of leadership culture—a culture that prioritized speed and cost-cutting over safety and environmental stewardship. Consider the gig-economy revolution, which has created remarkable flexibility but also a precarious underclass of workers without benefits, job security, or collective bargaining power. Consider the 2008 subprime crisis, which was not a natural disaster but a direct consequence of financial deregulation and the reckless pursuit of short-term profits.
Beyond these operational failures lies a deeper, more insidious cost: reputational fragility. A corporation freed from government anchors must now answer to a hyper-critical public, volatile social media campaigns, and activist shareholders—all within a relentless 24-hour news cycle. The very freedom to pivot strategies, downsize workforces, or relocate headquarters has cultivated a transactional culture devoid of loyalty. Short-term quarterly earnings systematically undermine long-term sustainable value. Leadership has become synonymous with quarterly performance, and stewardship has been replaced by speculative arbitrage.
The Edelman Trust Barometer consistently confirms this crisis. Over 60% of global citizens now distrust business leaders, viewing corporate freedom not as a gift but as a euphemism for unbridled greed. This erosion of trust is not a public relations problem; it is a leadership pathology. When trust collapses, everything collapses: employee engagement, consumer loyalty, investor confidence, and regulatory goodwill. The freedom to operate, it turns out, is contingent upon the social license to operate.
True leadership in the corporate sphere requires a fundamental shift from shareholder primacy to stakeholder stewardship. Corporations must legally restructure their charters to include explicit fiduciary duties not only to shareholders, but also to employees, communities, and the biosphere. This is not philanthropy; it is risk management. Companies that embed Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) metrics into executive compensation structures reduce long-term volatility and enhance brand resilience.
Furthermore, every major strategic decision—mergers, downsizing, new market expansions—must undergo a mandatory “hidden cost impact assessment” that quantifies psychological, social, and ecological externalities. This converts abstract moral costs into concrete, mitigable financial line items. Finally, corporations must co-create governance councils with civil society representatives and local government entities. By treating operational freedom as a perishable privilege that must be continuously earned, corporate leaders can transform hidden costs into competitive advantages, securing premium talent, investor confidence, and long-term market stability. This is the new fiduciary duty of modern leadership.
PART III: THE GEOPOLITICAL LEDGER – SOVEREIGNTY AS A DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD
For sovereign states, the ultimate victory is complete sovereignty—the freedom to chart foreign policy, manage national resources, and enforce legal frameworks without external interference. The dissolution of empires, the collapse of communist blocs, and the democratization of authoritarian regimes represent some of the most profound achievements of modern history. Yet, this victory incurs a crushing hidden cost: the absolute and unilateral responsibility for national security, economic stability, and social cohesion.
Historical evidence is instructive and sobering. Post-colonial transitions across Africa and Asia frequently produced not prosperity but civil war, ethnic conflict, and economic disintegration. Post-communist transformations in Eastern Europe witnessed the dissolution of social safety nets, the rise of oligarchic capitalism, and a generation of disillusionment. Even mature democracies, such as the United States and the United Kingdom, have experienced the “weight of victory” in the form of polarized legislatures, deteriorating public infrastructure, and fiscal insolvency. When a nation is liberated from imperial or authoritarian control, it inherits a broken bureaucracy, a fragmented civil society, and a hollowed industrial base. The liberation may be political, but the reconstruction is existential.
The most profound cost is the maintenance of legitimacy. Unlike dictatorial regimes that rule by coercion, free nations must govern through consent—a process that is inherently messy, resource-intensive, and slow. Electoral processes, judicial appeals, public consultations, and independent media consume enormous fiscal and emotional capital. Furthermore, the freedom to select alliances, trade partners, and defense strategies creates perpetual geopolitical anxiety. The nation that was once a pawn is now a player—yet every strategic move carries the risk of diplomatic isolation, economic sanctions, or military confrontation.
The ultimate tragedy is the dissolution of collective purpose. Freedom from a common enemy often fractures national unity. The United States, following the Cold War, experienced a crisis of national purpose that persists to this day. The Soviet Union’s dissolution left many post-Soviet republics in economic chaos and identity vacuums. The Arab Spring, which was celebrated globally as a democratic awakening, descended into devastating civil wars in Libya, Syria, and Yemen. Freedom, without a unifying narrative, becomes a centrifugal force that tears nations apart. Leadership, in this context, must provide not only liberty but meaning.
True leadership in the national sphere requires strategic statecraft and adaptive governance. Nations must institutionalize four interconnected pillars. First, constitutional resilience mechanisms: constitutions should incorporate “circuit breakers” for political polarization—including mandatory national dialogues, citizen assemblies, and independent fiscal councils—that intervene during periods of acute crisis. Second, national unity covenants: rather than relying on external threats for consolidation, nations must forge cross-partisan “prosperity pacts” centered on measurable, bipartisan objectives such as energy independence, universal digital access, and healthcare equity. Third, regional integration with safeguards: the singular burden of sovereignty can be shared through supranational frameworks like the European Union, ASEAN, or the African Union, but integration must be predicated upon subsidiarity—ensuring that local identities and national legislative autonomy are preserved. Fourth, national resilience funds: every liberated nation should establish a sovereign wealth fund that sequesters a fixed percentage of resource revenues specifically for systemic shocks—pandemics, climate catastrophes, cyber-attacks, and demographic collapse. These pillars transform the weight of sovereignty from a crushing burden into a sustainable framework for enduring prosperity.
PART IV: ONE LEDGER, THREE COLUMNS – THE INTERCONNECTED CRISIS
It is critical to recognize that the hidden costs for peoples, corporates, and nations are not discrete or isolated. They are dynamically interlocking. When a corporation exploits its market freedom to maximize quarterly profits, it destabilizes national labor markets, exacerbates income inequality, and intensifies individual psychological distress. When a nation asserts its sovereignty through aggressive foreign policies, it disrupts global supply chains, destabilizes corporate logistics, and propagates civilian anxiety. Conversely, when an individual exercises freedom irresponsibly—through excessive consumption or financial imprudence—it fuels corporate extraction and depletes national fiscal reserves.
This systemic entanglement means that fragmented, sector-specific solutions are inherently insufficient. A holistic resolution requires a tripartite compact—a legally and ethically binding agreement among the state, the market, and the citizenry. This compact must enshrine the foundational principle that freedom is a form of stewardship, not a conditional entitlement. Leadership, at every level, must recognize that liberty is a trust—a trust that requires careful management, transparent accounting, and unwavering commitment to the common good.
PART V: THE LIBERTY LOAD INDEX – A GLOBAL MEASURE FOR LEADERSHIP ACCOUNTABILITY
Imagine a global benchmark—a Liberty Load Index—that assesses how well a nation or corporation balances freedom with resilience. This index would measure three critical variables: psychological burden (mental health prevalence, suicide rates, and life satisfaction scores); corporate accountability (ESG compliance, ethical breach records, and workforce satisfaction); and national stability (fiscal health, political polarization, and infrastructure quality).
Nations and corporations that achieve a healthy “sweet spot”—where freedom is responsibly balanced with resilience—would receive preferential access to international development financing, improved sovereign credit ratings, and expedited trade agreements. Conversely, entities exhibiting “freedom fatigue”—high liberty indices but low resilience scores—would be mandated to participate in internationally supported stewardship reconstruction programs. This is not socialism; it is prudent global risk management. It is also the hallmark of mature leadership on the world stage.
CONCLUSION: THE VICTORY OF MATURITY
The hidden cost of freedom is, at its core, the price of collective maturity. Children demand liberty without understanding its consequences; adults accept it as a package deal with obligations. For centuries, humanity has fought to liberate itself from external tyrants, monopolies, and empires. Yet, the next frontier of struggle is not against external oppressors. It is against the internal atrophy, fragmentation, and fatigue that inevitably follow liberation.
By objectively recognizing, quantitatively measuring, and systematically addressing the psychological, strategic, and geopolitical weights that accompany victory, global leaders can transform these hidden costs from silent ravagers into visible architects of sustainable progress. The solution is not to abandon freedom—such a regression would be existential folly. The solution is to carry the weight with dignity and institutional intelligence, to construct systemic support structures that distribute the burden equitably, and to instill in every citizen, executive, and statesman a profound truth: that true leadership is not merely the right to choose—it is the wisdom to choose well, with foresight, responsibility, and collective solidarity.
In doing so, humanity converts a hidden cost into a hidden strength. We transform a heavy burden into a proud badge of enduring stewardship. And we ensure that the victory of delivering freedom to peoples, corporates, and nations is not a fleeting historical euphoria, but a permanent, prosperous, and peaceful inheritance for all generations yet to come.
Dr. Tolulope A. Adegoke, AMBP-UN is a globally recognized scholar-practitioner and thought leader at the nexus of security, governance, and strategic leadership. His mission is dedicated to advancing ethical governance, strategic human capital development, resilient nation building, and global peace. He can be reached via: tolulopeadegoke01@gmail.com, globalstageimpacts@gmail.com
The Police Command in Plateau State has warned its personnel against unlawfully demanding and searching citizens’ mobile phones.
The Commissioner of Police (CP) in the State, Bassey Ewah, issued the warning while addressing its personnel in Jos.
The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) of the command, Alfred Alabo, disclosed this in a statement on Thursday.
“No personnel of this command has the legal authority to search mobile phone of any citizen on the road without a court warrant,” Alabo quoted Ewah as saying.
The PPRO said that the commissioner, who reiterated the command’s commitment to professionalism, warned personnel against unprofessional conduct.
He added that the commissioner advised residents to politely decline any unlawful attempt by personnel to search their phones and report the incident to the nearest police station.
Alabo also advised residents of the State to report any incident of harassment through the following phone numbers: 08034448617, 08060545670, 08037681026, 09016146804, and 09051145757.
The PPRO further reaffirmed the command’s commitment to protecting the lives, property and rights of law abiding residents in line with global best practices.
NAN
