Police minister condemns Nigeria police 'killings'

Nigeria's police minister has launched a scathing attack on the force, accusing officers of killings, robbery and other abuses.

Ibrahim Lame said the lack of security was "condemnable and unacceptable".

Human rights groups have frequently accused Nigeria's police of abuses and corruption but it is rare for the government to make similar charges.

The national police chief blamed the security problems on poverty, corruption and religious tension.

Mr Lame told a meeting of police commanders: "The current rate of crime across the nation, rising cases of extra-judicial killings, human rights violations, robberies, high-profile assassination and deliberate failure to comply with government directives are testimony to the sheer incapacity or wilful defiance of police high command" to government directives.

Inspector General of Police Ogbonna Onovo said the police were "operating under unbearable conditions", reports the Vanguard newspaper, adding that criminals were often better armed than the police.

Last year, a BBC investigation found that staff in the mortuary in the south-eastern city of Enugu were unable to cope with the large number of bodies the police were delivering - many of whom had been accused of being armed robbers.

Ibrahim Jimoh and his bank debt adverts

Sir, In Nigeria Barrister Ibrahim Jimoh is regarded a billionaire. He had, at the wake of the audit of the first set of banks, argued that he owed Oceanic Bank N8billion (only) as against N14billion revealed by the records submitted to the Central Bank of Nigeria by the commercial bank.
Jimoh did not only stop at trying to set the records ‘right’ but also took many pages of wrap-around advertisements in the print media to publish positions of his accounts with almost every bank in the country. He ended his submission by requesting that, should any other bank feels he owed it, it should say so immediately. If Ibrahim Jimoh could go that length only for people to now know that he lied, it is very unfortunate. Now it has been proven that he owe another N3billion as non-performing loan in the second batch of banks that were audited.
What I am now querying is why Jimoh Ibrahim should owe Nigerian banks whereas it was reported recently that he had established a bank in Ghana. This is in addition to another story where he was quoted to be establishing a University and a five-star Hotel in the tiny nation of Sao Tome and Principe; a country with population of about 200,000 persons. His action is that of robbing Peter to invent Paul and this could be viewed as sabotaging the Nigerian economy.
Some Nigerian businessmen seem not to understand that some of their actions are portraying our citizens as fraudulent people in the eyes of the international community. This set of businessmen must be stopped if the so-called rebranding project of the federal government is anything to reckon with.