Nigeria police and their unnecessary stopping of buses at every checkpoint, trying to find something to pin one down especially when they have asked for driver's licence and papers and all are completed, they start rummaging every part of the bus just to find unnecessary excuses to nab drivers down, in the end, you would want to give one of them a slap when you see that after every turning in circles and delaying them, all they wanted was a bribe, just #50 naira ($0.05) and you'd see them smiling mischievously at the drivers with the signal to pass them away while moving onto the next victim.
It's really funny to see how they stop cars, buses, and bikes all in the name of bribe. Soon, we would hear the news of how people are stopped when passing through the pedestrian, nothing is ever free with these Nigerian police. There was a time I heard that the salaries they received weren't enough to feed them and their families, so, they resorted to standing by the roadside to collect #50 each from every bus and car that passed by.
The car we hired from the North two weeks ago was so lucky, till we got to our destination, no police or soldiers collected a dime from him because he carried corpers. We all were 10 Nigerian corpers and we had so much fun as we would shout at every checkpoint that we were all corpers and did some salutations which would make these forces smile and pass us on. The driver had fun that day, all because we are government property and no one should dare stop us on the way.
But something happened last week on my way back from Ibadan where I was travelling to Ilorin, I boarded this bus and as we were going, we were stopped at some checkpoints but they only collected the usual amount from the driver until we got to a particular checkpoint and things turned in a different way. This incident didn't stop me from laughing in my mind when I remembered what happened. It was obvious that the policemen had nothing to pin us down and started acting unnecessarily. It was funny that the passengers were just looking and couldn't say anything. Someone said no one should argue with any of them as that was what they were looking for. Just something to drag us to the station.
This was how it happened.....
There I was sitting innocently while listening to music as my earpiece was plugged into my ears. Then, our bus was stopped for a random police check. We all glanced through the window as an officer was signalling for the driver to park by the side of the road while he stepped down, he went to meet them at the back, after searching his papers and ordering him to open the booth for another check, when they didn't see anything suspicious, two policemen came to the front and ordered all passengers to step down as they began another inspection.
The innocent me was with a small bag placed on my legs with some stuff in it. While others came down, I was surprised they didn't ask me to come down, one of them only glanced through my bag and took his eyes off me when he saw me giving a fake smile. "What could be in her bag anyways?" that must be what was in his mind. I became the center of attention as some passengers looked at me and also glanced through my small bag and I knew they would be like "What has she done to them not to have searched her bag as they did to us?".
After what seemed like a long time and a delay, we were let go and we continued on our journey. The passengers started ranting and insulting the police force for such an unnecessary act they put out earlier. They will not do their job but find faults up and down. A woman said these policemen were not up to the task with what they did because if thieves raided the point with AK47 guns, no one would wait behind as everyone would find the available route to escape and run for their lives 😆😆 That is true because these people just like to use their power on ordinary civilians but when they sight weapons bigger than theirs, they will all run with their legs touching their backs.
