ABUSE OF POWER- my experience

Hello steemians today I'll be sharing a story centered around abuse of power based on my personal experience and that of people I've seen and read about. I believe every Nigerian youth will agree with me when I say the Nigerian Force ranks top when it comes to the abuse of power, the police officers that are meant to protect the citizens are now the ones the citizens are scared of. These officers have no respect for the law and they operate way beyond their jurisdiction, they invade your privacy, physically molest you and even plant false evidence against you when they find nothing on you. Of recent there was a ranking of police forces worldwide and the Nigeria Police Force was ranked as the worst.

In this video you can hear the guy saying he is not a thief in the local Nigerian pidgin English. This is how they treat innocent young boys in Nigeria and I'm just among the few ones that have not been physically abused.

Some years back I was on my way my to visit my grandma, on my way to the bus park I passed a police van not knowing in a matter of minutes I'll be in their custody. just barely 20 seconds walk from the van a man pulled me back and I saw that he was a police officer, he asked me to follow him to the van which I did and they started checking my bag, when they found nothing incriminating inside they asked for my phone which I gave to them and they started searching the phone for anything incriminating which was a violation of my right but because I didn't want to be manhandled I didn't protest against the act. By this time I was in their van and passers-by felt I was a criminal. They checked my gallery, whatsapp messages and facebook messages and when they saw that they could not tie me down with anything they finally let me out. I spent about an hour in the van, while I was there they also searched other boys passing by and when a boy was trying to fight for his right by not allowing them go through the phone he was handcuffed like a common criminal and thrown into the van, I don't know what happened to the guy afterwards because when I was allowed to leave he was still cuffed in the van. That day I had to end my journey and go back home.

The second time I was held by another group of officers I didn't spend much time with them. This was december 2017 and I was on my home. They checked all my personal messages and when they saw nothing they accused me of being a member of a secret cult and I simply said I wasn't so after much questions they let me go.

Just some weeks back I was inside a bus going to meet a friend that wanted to give me some tutorials on graphics design because I wanted to post an entry for the graphics challenge @sndbox organized. while I was on a public transport we got to a police checkpoint, they pulled us over, looked inside the bus and asked me to come down just because I was carrying a bag with my laptop inside. I came down from the bus and the bus driver drove off. The head of the police officers asked me for the receipt of the laptop and when I told him I didn't have it he collected my bag and said he'll be taking it to the police station, I knew he wanted me to bribe him but I was never going to do that because he had to right to confisticate my laptop. At first I pleaded with him and told him that I needed to be somewhere urgently but he refused, I had to ask if the laptop was a gun and why he was oppressing me then one of them said I should shut my mouth up or he'll beat me up, I had to tell to go ahead and beat me up or even shoot me if he wants to because that is what they do to young boys. After spending over an hour with them at the checkpoint my mum came with a man who was a consultant for the Nigeria Police Force and he collected the laptop from them and we left. Two days later I was coming down from a bus when I saw a police van passing by, as soon as they saw me with a bag they slowed down and one of the officers was trying to open the door to apprehend me like I was holding a human head but he could not open it quickly enough because other cars were at the side so before he could open it I was far away and when I looked back I saw them searching a boy who was just passing.

I have been fortunate not to have been molested but some have lost their lives to this total abuse of power. Recently there was an a campaign on social media with the tag #ENDSARS which was aimed at putting an end to the injustice perpetrated by the acclaimed officers of the law but not much have changed. I believe we can put an end to this menance if we all speak out against it and create awareness.

ALL VIDEOS WERE SORCED FROM YOUTUBE