Police job not slavery; officers can consume alcohol: Spokesman Ben Hundeyin

Police image maker in Lagos, Benjamin Hundeyin, says police work is not slavery therefore officers can drink alcohol responsibly.

Speaking of policemen caught on camera drinking, Mr Hundeyin said “they have not misbehaved, they have not assaulted anybody, they have not extorted (money from) anybody, they are just drinking. Anybody can drink. Police work is not slavery, anybody can drink.” 

He continued, “They were just drinking and they were drunk and that’s what makes it unprofessional, they were in uniforms but if they took the same amount of alcohol while they are off duty, while in mufti, it has not constitute an offence; they have not committed an offence.”

Mr Hundeyin made this statement while speaking in an interview with PUNCH newspaper on Saturday.

He further said, “even the policemen that were caught taking alcohol, they were not behaving erratically, they were not misbehaving. Yes, there was a tendency that they could misbehave because they were drunk but at the point when your colleague, Dayo Oyewo, took their pictures, they were not misbehaving.”

Last week a Punch reporter had captured police personnel at the Ajiwe police division drinking alcohol near their station.

It was just days after an assistant superintendent of police, Drambi Vandi shot dead a pregnant Lagos lawyer Bolanle Raheem at an Ajah checkpoint on Christmas Day.

The gruesome murder elicited nationwide outrage and brought concerns about police brutality to the front burner of national discourse.

Activists have over the years queried the character of police intakes and the quality of their training. There are also allegations that many police officers are drug and alcohol addicts; the influence impairs their abilities to professionally conduct themselves civilly on duty.

The House of Representatives days ago passed a resolution to ban policemen on duty from drinking alcohol.