In this exclusive interview with THERESA MOSES, Publisher, GATMASH NEWS, the Public Relations Officer, Lagos State Police Command, SP Benjamin Hundeyin talks about the challenges of the job, how to support cops in the community, nature of crimes in Lagos State, and many other issues. Excerpt…
Your comments, tweets on social media have generated a lot of controversies. How do you feel being dragged?
If you say it has generated a lot of controversy, well possible that is what you choose to focus on. It has also generated a lot of interest, recommendation, accolades. I am happy that I’m able to make a positive impact; I’m happy that I am able to bring the police closer to the people, and happy too that I am able to show people the pathways for finding redress or solutions to their problems. So, I’m happy that it’s closing the trust gap and it’s a movement in the right direction.
The issue of misconduct on the part of the police is on a low-key. What could be the reason?
I am happy that for once some body admits that cases of unprofessional conducts have reduced. That becomes the norm as a result of bringing the police closer to the people. Immediately, I came on board, one of the first things I did was to publish the phone numbers of all the Divisional Police Officers (DPOs) and Area Commanders in the state. So, when people reach out to me, I tell them to call the DPO first. As a result, it became like a mantra that people know. Sometimes, when I come online to catch a cruise: I say, oh! somebody scratched my car today; many people will say, call the nearest DPO. It has become popular and that has been the solution to it. People now know that if a police man misbehaves, you don’t need to call the PRO who is at the headquarters, you don’t need to call the Area Commanders who are far away, call the DPO who is closest to you and the numbers are out there. I have escalated that to my WhatsApp profile, the phone numbers are there; so people can quickly scroll through and call the DPO. And the DPO too, who does not want to get into trouble, would quickly look into the problem. I see people telling me to talk to my counterparts in other states to emulate such steps and do the same. So, that has been the secret making the police accountable.
What is the most challenging part of your job as Lagos Police spokesperson?
The most challenging aspect to me is fake news. People dig out old videos and present it as if it’s happening now at Mile 12 or other places. It’s happening right now and my phone is on fire. People will start calling: “We heard that they are fighting in Mile 12,” but it’s all fake news. So, I find myself battling with fake news for precious time I should have used for more constructive things. Another challenging thing is the attitude of some Nigerians. Someone will willingly drive against traffic and the next you get is all manners of calls soliciting for assistance if arrested. How do you fathom that? They call you, saying, “My guy, my brother, abeg help me talk to your people to let him go.” It’s really challenging. Please, allow us to do our job. There was a time I summoned a police officer for extorting someone of N400,000. When the police officer came, he didn’t come alone but with his brother who is a Pastor in the church. He doubles as a Pastor and a lawyer. They came with the N400,000 cash; and the brother says since he has returned the money I should allow him go. These things are challenging to me.
What’s the best way for a police officer to diffuse a situation without resorting to violence?
If you have been close to a pilot before; before a flight, you would notice some things: they have so many buttons displayed in the cockpit. Then, you begin to wonder if they really know each of the buttons. But if you’re close to a pilot, you will discover that there is actually a check-list and the co-pilot is reading out these things and the pilot is putting them in place. The point I am trying to make is that there’s always a check-list to ensure that proper standards are maintained. You just don’t leave everything to discretion.
For violent situations, we have a check-list so to speak. You start with verbal persuasion as a first step. And when that doesn’t work, we might resort to, or use minimum force. Minimum force, in this regard could be, using or spraying water cannons on them to disperse them. However, that’s not harmful in any way, but could cause some discomfort. And in the absence of that, you might need to use tear gas. Also, it causes some discomfort to your eyes for two or three minutes and you are okay. Nobody goes blind because of tear gas. Well, if you are asthmatic, you can have issues but even before it is fired, you are warned to step back or it will be fired. And when the crowd is unruly or is actually attacking the police, then, it graduates to using batons. If the batons are used on you, you could feel the pain for two days. Definitely, you won’t die; you won’t have dislocations but might need to buy some ointment to apply over the place. And when it is very serious, when people shoot back at the police, then, as a last resort, you use your firearms. These are the stages, and there’s a check-list. So, that’s how we handle violent situations. In some cases, after stage one, it works. Also, in some other cases, it goes to stage two or three.
How can people support cops in their communities?
First and foremost, assisting the police with relevant and timely information is very key and important. Crime does not happen in the sky, it happens when somebody is close to somebody. So, people should give information to help the police to nip crime in the bud. I understand the reservations some people have about confidentiality but we are also improving in that regard. That’s why we urged people to pass information to more senior officers; they will manage such information to our own advantage. I get information regularly. People send me text messages, e-mails, etc., and I pass it out to the right unit to investigate, and possibly apprehend the suspects. All over the world information is key. I must commend Lagosians. They have been helping in that regard. We get information a lot, regularly. We also have the Lagos State Neighbourhood Safety Corp; it is a grassroots organisation. They stay in the street, gather and collect information and send it to us on a weekly basis.
How do you prepare yourself mentally and physically for the job?
I will say practice makes perfect. I got into the police academy and every morning, unfailingly, the whistle goes off at 5am. You have to come out, within five minutes you should be outside your dormitory in your squad. Everybody has their squad. In your squad, everybody is wearing white on white – white top, white shorts – and in the dark you start jogging around the entire academy. Then, we’ll come back possibly by 6am to prepare ourselves as breakfast starts by 7am. Go to the kitchen to get your food and by 8am, you fall in line (assemble) again to march to the parade ground to start the parade, every day. Initially, it was stressful to the extent where we set our alarm for 4:30am. So, you wake up, brush your teeth and gist till 5am. In fact, we do that outside as we see the instructor blowing the whistle. Realistically, from complaining, we became used to it and ever since, here I am. That’s many years ago but my body clock has not gone back to what it was before the police academy. If you say the job of the police is demanding, it’s practice. It has become part of us; we don’t see it as stress. Yes, there’s a limit you choose to stress yourself. But what you see as stress, sometimes, it’s just normal for us.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to become a police officer?
I will encourage everyone to enlist into the force; it is a good place to work actually. I wish people would like to take a tour of the force and see that part not being talked about and realize that it’s actually a good place to work. We need more interested people in the force. We don’t want people that are forced into the force by their parents because that’s a fact. Some people were forced due to their behaviour; we don’t want that. We don’t want people that go to the police college and run away, and the mother has to drag him back. We appreciate those of us interested, because with interest comes passion, zeal, dedication; those kinds of people will be able to give us the kind of policing that we need. To those who try and couldn’t get in, it shows that it is competitive. It’s just not the police; every job opening in the country is very competitive. If you try and don’t get in, try again, try again and try again; you just might get it one day.
Are you cool with the idea of mandatory body cams while on duty?
Well, if you check online you would see that when people bring out their phones to record police officers, recently police officers would bring out their phones and say, record me, I too will record you. Police officers want to record to show their Divisional Police Officers. It’s not like police officers are against it; so it would be easier if it’s already on me. I don’t have to hold a phone to record. We are not against it, we would love it. We’ve seen it work when we travelled to other countries. Not just body cam, even dash cam, the one placed on the dashboard of a car. We are for it and the police as an organisation want to do it as soon as the funds are ready. Our funds are limited so we need to prioritize what we’re spending on our priority list. We need to sort out our pressing issues and when the funds are available; we would get our body cam.
What do movies and TV get wrong and right about police work?
A lot of things. I don’t know where to start. When we watch some movies we just have to laugh. I watched RMD wearing a police uniform in a movie and I laughed because they mix things up. You wouldn’t see it, but there are certain little things that only people of certain rank would use. For example, the popular red neck; they would say oh, it’s a red neck, in the army. The moment you are a Colonel, you start using gurget. It’s red in colour so they call it redneck. For the police to use it, in most cases it is black, and you wear it from the rank of Assistant Commissioner of Police. The moment you see the Deputy Superintendent of Police using a gurget, it becomes laughable, because it’s not possible. That’s one of such examples. There are so many things that people get wrong. That’s why when I’m watching American movies that feature scenes showing cops, I take my time to see the appreciation at the end of the movie. And truly, I would see that special thanks to the Los Angeles Police Department or police consultants, retired Sergeants. They don’t claim to know everything, they bring in the experts; but here, we see all sorts of things and it’s obvious they do not do their homework. It’s obvious they are doing guess work. That is what I see about Nigeria’s movie industry, even though we’ve had people coming to ask how to do it right. “Please, come dress this actor for us.”
RMD did a movie recently and asked for the force to dress the actor for him and we did. We gave them the uniform and arranged the uniform and gave it to them and it came out very good.
How do you stay motivated at work?
Focus on the positives and not the negatives. Looking at the negative side, could actually get you discouraged or angry. So, I just looked away and focused on the positives.
How do you relax?
I have a ‘me-time’ but it always gets interrupted even at midnight. My ‘me-time’ is usually Netflix, I love watching good movies but, unfortunately, it always gets interrupted.
Tell me about a time when you had to be tactful to resolve a situation?
I use it every day. People call me every day to report about police officers and it all depends on the situation. I could decline to talk to the police officers and instruct them to go into the station and talk with the DPO. At times, I could say they should give the phone to a police officer. When they give the phone to the police officer, ask for his name, shout or raise my voice at him and at times, I might not. It depends on the situation. I might even ignore them and call the DPO, or ask them to go to the station. There’s no hard and fast road to tact.
The rate of traffic robbery and criminal activities has reduced in Lagos, but criminals are still on the loose, why?
The fact is there’s no metropolitan or cosmopolitan city that’s 100 per cent crime-free. There’s none in the world, not New York, London, Johannesburg, not Beijing. These are things that come with development and progress. You cannot rule it out; in fact, people will tell you about South East London. We’ve reduced it to the barest minimum and we will continue to work on it. I am happy that the complaints I receive with regards to traffic robbery have reduced and we will continue to work on it. We can’t guarantee you that bad boys won’t come out, but we can guarantee you that we will always be there to respond and hopefully with government policies that would create more jobs and reduce unemployment among the youths, things will improve and we will always do our best.
What major challenges did you face during the elections? How did you manage them?
We had a lot of time to plan. So, I wouldn’t say we have any challenge per se except for political supporters who took it upon themselves to disrupt the electoral process in a few polling units. Sorry econdly, our control room received lots of calls about issues that had nothing to do with the police. For example, “we haven’t seen INEC staff yet, they have not resumed at the polling unit.” That’s not our own duty. You haven’t seen INEC officials but our officers are there waiting. So, we don’t have issues with that and we don’t have to attend to that. I’d say that was a big challenge, people don’t know when to call the police or what to call the police for. By and large, if we were to do self-assessment, we did quite well. We had 13,325 polling units and we had issues in 28 polling units. In terms of percentage, success is 99.9 per cent. With all intent and purpose, I’d say we did well. Notwithstanding, we have noticed gaps, we have worked on it and were able to up the games during the gubernatorial elections.
What’s your advice to Lagosians?
I always keep it short and simple: If you see something, say something!
For the records, who is SP Benjamin Hundeyin?
I am Superintendent of Police Benjamin Hundeyin (mnipr), Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Lagos State Command, Ikeja, I hail from Badagry Local Government Area and holds a BA (Hons) English Language from the Lagos State University (LASU) Ojo, and an MSc in Legal Criminology and Security Psychology from the University of Ibadan. I also hold a Certificate in Civil-Military Coordination from the Martin Luther Agwai International Leadership and Peacekeeping Training Centre, Jaji, Kaduna State, Nigeria.
As a young man, I joined the Nigerian Police Force as a Cadet Assistant Superintendent of Police. I’m married with children. Professionally, I belong to several professional associations and professional bodies, including Nigerian Institute of Public Relations (NIPR); International Public Relations Association (IPRA) and an Associate of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria (CIPM).
As a young officer, I had been a one-time PPRO at the Zone 2 Command Headquarters, Onikan Lagos, and was a member of the Nigerian contingent to the United Nations Peacekeeping Mission in Darfur, Sudan (UNAMID) in 2020. Before my appointment as the Public Relations Officer of the Lagos State Police Command a year ago, I was the Administration Officer at the Force Public Relations Department, Force Headquarters, Abuja.
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