Lessons Nigerian Police Need to Learn from US

What happened in Pennsylvania, United States of America last Wednesday, where a convict who escaped from prison two weeks ago was captured after a massive manhunt launched by the police, is a lesson for the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) should learn from.

Danelo Cavalcante, 34, was arrested in a wooded area by a law enforcement dog after a heat-sensing aircraft located him as he tried to crawl away from officers who had surrounded him. More than 500 officers hunted him down after he escaped from prison on August 31.

He was sentenced to life in prison last month for killing his ex-girlfriend in front of her two children in 2021.

But just a week after he was sentenced, Cavalcante “crab-walked” between two walls and scaled a razor-wire fence to escape Chester County Prison, about 50 kilometres west of Philadelphia, where he had been awaiting transfer to a different facility.

The two-week manhunt spanned a large area of the state and put residents of Chester County on edge, with the police advising the residents to lock their doors and stay inside.

When the efficiency of the US police is compared with their counterpart in Nigeria, it is a far cry from what is experienced here.

For instance, penultimate week, suspected cultists led by one Gift David Okpara Okpolowu (a.k.a. 2-Baba), ambushed and killed a a Divisional Police Officer (DPO), SP Bako Angbashim, in Odiemudie community, Ahoada East Local Government Area of Rivers State.

Angbashim beheaded and butchered by the suspected dreaded cultists. The incident has sparked outrage in the state, as Angbashim was known for his exploits against criminals in all the areas he was deployed to in the state.

As the DPO in Bori, Khana LGA of the state, his gallant impact tamed criminal activities in Ogoniland.

All Nigerians heard from the acting Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Kayode Egbetokun, was a mere condemnation of the gruesome murder of the slain officer and a directive for the arrest of the killers.

For the state police command, it was a pledge to track down the gunmen.

This has always been the pattern any time gruesome attacks or killings take place in the Nigeria. There is no operational strategy put in place to arrest the perpetrators like what transpired in the US where some security agencies came together to plot Cavalcante’s capture.

Instead what the police are allegedly doing in Rivers State is to randomly harass and arrest innocent youths.

As we write, Nigeria is struggling with news of 13 youth corps members from Akwa Ibom who were kidnapped in Zamfara on their way to Sokoto about four weeks ago. The kidnappers have been reported to have asked for some money and the parents struggled to make N13million payment in two tranches only for the kidnappers to raise the ransom to N200million. As usual, they have not been rescued.