Why Policemen Must Undergo Mental Test Immediately – Group

The immediate mental assessment of all personnel of the Nigeria Police Force has been called for by a group, Gavel, a civic tech organization

Nelson Olanipekun, Team Lead of Gavel, who lamented the incessant killings of Nigerians by police officers, attributed the killings to lack of discipline.

Olanipekun urged Adamu Mohammed, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), to be proactive in ending the series of extrajudicial activities being carried out by the Police.

He said: “With the increase in police brutality, police extortion and extrajudicial killings across Nigeria, we cannot afford to keep waiting until the next incident happens before action is taken.

“We need to be proactive and stop sacrificing the lives of promising Nigerians on the altar of system inefficiency and lack of accountability.

“While we commend the obvious efforts of the acting Inspector General of Police in trying to fix the system, it is seeming that the lack of discipline is long entrenched in the veins of police personnel and this begs for an urgent need for a massive overhaul of the system.”

Olanipekun called for a mental test of officers in order to sieve the force of “bad heads”.

He said: “It is high time that the leadership of the police began a mental assessment and other forms of relevant assessment to remove the bad heads from the system.

“The implementation of the directive that heads of the unit must be accountable should begin immediately since no one can better be held accountable for the actions and inactions of an officer, other than the immediate supervisor of such officer.”

He added that the assessment must commence immediately in order to prevent anarchy in Nigeria.