100,000 policemen carry handbags for wives of moneybags *Police Service Commission boss laments Written by Chris Agbambu, Abuja Wednesday, October 19, 2011 IT has been revealed that out of the 330,000 police staff strength, over 100,000 are attached to individuals, to be carrying handbags for their wives. The chairman, Police Service Commission (PSC), DIG Parry Osayande (retd), who made the revelation on Tuesday while addressing the Senate Committee on Police Affairs, said that it was regrettable that only 230,000 policemen were left to police 150 million Nigerians. According to him, "are these 150 million Nigerians supposed not to be protected, if only a few fortunate individuals are being protected by over 100,000 policemen?" The chairman said that he had made it clear on several occasions that a special force be trained to serve as guards, because the use of policemen for that purpose had become a status symbol. He said that the police required surgical operation for the nation to get what it deserved. On his own part, the Deputy Senate Leader, Abdul Ningi, said that it was unacceptable that over 100,000 policemen were attached to a few individuals, leaving other Nigerians to their fate. He admonished the commission to rise up to its responsibility of repositioning the force, as its function was constitutionally provided and must not be usurped by anybody. Speaking further on the way forward for the Nigeria Police, Osayande noted that Nigerians had waited long enough to have a police force that would meet their aspirations, adding that even though government had commenced the reform of the police through the implementation of the government's White Paper on the MD Yusufu Presidential Committee, not much of its impact had been seen. On the factors militating against the force, the chairman named misuse, misapplication of available resources and lack of accountability through award of bogus contracts and outright diversion and misappropriation of the meagre resources. Also, he attributed failure to plan and lack of vision as some of the problems confronting the force. The chairman disclosed that corruption had assumed a great dimension and seemed to have been institutionalised, as some of the officers and men who engaged in the practice had been found to collude with and, sometimes, shield criminals, rather than prevent crimes. Some policemen, according to him, had been found to facilitate the escape of criminals from lawful custody, obtain money from suspects for closure of case files or to derail the cause of justice, escort contraband, steal from suspects and accident victims and supply police weapons and uniforms to criminals.