New Telegraph

#EndSARS protest: Policemen need attention –Psychologist

Despite the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu’s order that policemen and officers should go back to their duty posts, morale among the rank and file is still low.

 

This, Sunday Telegraph learnt, is occasioned by the unprecedented manner they were attacked and 37 of them killed in a nationwide carnage suspected hoodlums visited on the country. “

 

Our morale is still low, regardless of the order given by the IG that we should return to our duty posts. If not for the report you (Sunday Telegraph) did last week to highlight how we were abandoned and left to take care of ourselves, we would probably be battling with how to pay medical bills and other things,” volunteered our source who spoke on condition of anonymity.

 

Our source continued: “That report jolted the Governors of Lagos State (Babajide Sanwo-Olu) and Rivers (Nyesom Wike) to say that the states would foot the bills of those who sustained injuries and pay compensation to the families of those who died. It is captivating that the children of those who died on active service would enjoy scholarship in addition to insurance cover for us

 

. “Also the IGP has embarked on a nationwide tour of State Commands to encourage men and officers. This has never happened in the annals of the police. “Have you wondered why no one went to the streets to prevent the looters even after he (IG) ordered that the AIG’s, CPs and DPOs to take back the public space from the criminals?

 

 

We were deeply hurt. We are human beings and need empathy from the public.” Meanwhile, a professor of psychology at the University of Ibadan, Prof. Benjamin Ehigie, has said that attention should be paid to the psychological needs of policemen in Nigeria in view of the apathy which they have shown in returning to their duty posts in the wake of the #EndSARS protest which turned violent recently.

 

Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, last week ordered that the “policemen should take back the public space,” after arsonists unleashed mayhem in Lagos, Ibadan, Onitsha, Port Harcourt and other cities. Prof. Ehigie, who made the call on an NTA programme, ‘Good Morning Nigeria’, monitored in Lagos, said the way the society reacted to them leaves much to be desired.

 

He said: “The way the society reacted to them deflated their morale. It is true we have some policemen of questionable ways, but not all of them. At the end, some innocent ones were killed. “Have you visited the police barracks? The environment is appalling.

 

They do not have a tidy environment, the toilets are not there, the kitchen is not there, the laundries are bad, the roofs are leaking and you expect them to work under such environment? We should look into the environment under which they work and be given adequate attention.”

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