The Nigerian police have released a report which ranked its state commands according to the number of public complaints against them.

The report, released on Thursday by the Complaint Response Unit (CRU) of the police, shows that the Rivers State Command tops the ranking, with 78 complaints which represents 19.26 per cent of the total complaints made nationwide against the police, in the third quarter of the year.

The report, signed by Abayomi Shogunle, an Assistant Commissioner of Police in-charge of the CRU, covers only two months – July and September.

Out of the 78 complaints against the police in the oil-rich state, 13 had to do with the excessive use of force against citizens, while 24 were on professional misconduct, and 41 on the demand for money for bail, according to the report.

The police have consistently said that releasing suspects on bail does not require payment of money, and that people should report to the CRU whenever officers make such demands.

In the report, Lagos comes second in the ranking, with 72 complaints. Abuja, Anambra, and Akwa Ibom come in at third, fourth, and fifth positions, with 48, 25, and 23 complaints respectively.

Others are ranked as follows: Edo, 6th; Delta, 7th; Ogun, 8th; Oyo, 9th; and Enugu, 10th.

According to the report, no single complaint was recorded against the police in six states – Bauchi, Jigawa, Katsina, Kebbi, Osun, and Sokoto. Also, no complaint has been made against the police in Kebbi since the inception of the CRU.

The report says the police, during the period under review, recovered N2.7million bribe money from an assistant commissioner of police in an unnamed state.

Three hundred and twenty-four cases have been resolved or closed, out of the 405 complaints received nationwide by the CRU, while 51 cases were classified as false or unrelated, and 30 pending, the report said.

The report indicates a sharp drop in the number of complaints against the police in the period under review. While 1054 complaints were recorded in the first quarter of the year, and 906 in the second quarter, only 405 have been recorded for this quarter.

The CRU, launched last year, enables the public to lodge complaints against misconducts by police officers through phone calls, sms, emails, and other platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Whatsapp.

The report said, “The Inspector-General of Police has directed that all cases forwarded to State Commands and Formations should be resolved within 24hrsand report of actions taken forwarded to the CRU”.

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