Officers should stop listening to Naeto C

On the track 'Codeine Therapy' released off his brilliant (but poorly promoted) body of work "Day One", Naeto C said "suspect, everybody is a suspect."

This is must be the track the social media handler of the Nigerian Police Force's Twitter account must have been listening to when he tweeted a crazy statement.

A few days ago the @policeNG handle tweeted "The future u want is here. Educate ur children to always submit to police search if requested cos everyone is a suspect."

First of all, why should the NPF's handler be tweeting in short hand. The Police Force already gets a bad rep that its officers are not highly educated. This is a bad look.

Secondly, when did Nigeria become a police state. It's been 18 years since the military was in power. Those dark days are gone but the police want you to live in fear and think you have committed a crime that you are innocent enough.

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Treating everyone as a suspect is not a way to solve crimes. If it worked, Nigeria would be crime free but it isn't. This method of going about police business often leads to intimidation, extortion and harassment.

Nigerian youths suffer the most under the Nigeria Police Force's gestapo like style of doing business. Young Nigerians with dreadlocks and tattoos are wrongly profiled as Internet fraudsters. They are arrested with no evidence and locked up in some cases.

It is so bad now that the police unit known as the Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) go about intimidating and extorting money from young Nigerians. They arrested with no proof or evidence that they are cultists or fraudsters.

In an Amnesty International Report released in 2016, SARS officers are also involved in extra-judicial killings.

With the tweet from the Nigerian Police Force, we now know why things are the way they are. The police maybe thinking we are all criminals. The life of the average Nigerian youth is already hard as it is. The police should be our friend not our enemy.

The tweet has been deleted but there is still a sneaky feeling that things won't change. All we are asking is for the Nigerian Police Force to stop listening to that Naeto C track. Not everyone is a suspect.