By Onifade Gabriel
Some police officers are bullies. They don’t pay for goods they procure and services rendered to them. They rather threaten their victims (civilians – whose interest I believe they are paid to protect) and intimidate them with their status. I am posting this on the internet, publishing it in the papers and sending it to media houses as a way of sharing my experience in the hands of a police officer who bullied and victimized me after I rendered services to him.
Here is my ordeal. A Superintendent of Police, (we are withholding his name because we are trying to resolve the disagreement between him and Mr. Gabriel) at Area D (Olosan) police station at Mushin, approached me on a “friendly” note to fix his laptop. I found that the original Windows vista that came with it had been changed to Windows XP (an older version with fake licence; the screen was blackened with Microsoft warning – ‘you may be a victim of not genuine windows’) This made the system malfunctioned especially on Microsoft applications such as MS Word, Excel, etc. So I advised that we change it to the latest Windows 7 from Microsoft, make other installations – anti-virus, system maintenance and security tools. I gave him a bill of N7,000, and he accepted.
He also brought his printer to me for servicing and ink refill at the computer village Ikeja. It cost N3,000 besides fare to and fro Ikeja.
In addition, on his request, I bought him a power adapter for his laptop (N2,500), a surge protector (N3,500), a power adapter for his printer (N2,500), a data cable for his printer (N500) and a rim of 80g A4 paper (N600). He was to pay me N1,400 for my time and fare, bringing the total purchases to N21,000.
But to my utter disappointment, for more than five (5) weeks, the police superintendent (“our friend!”) did not pay a dime for the purchases and services he requested.
This is what happened. He has a 2.5G EDGE Airtel Internet Modem (he said he bought it for N18,000 last year and that it was still good enough). I advised him against the lower technology of that modem. I suggested that he purchases airtel modem with 3G 72rpm (which costs N5,500), or MTN 3.5G (N5,500 – I use MTN myself), or SWIFT 4G or Starcomms 3G or Glo 3G. I also advised him to buy 5GB monthly internet bundle because Microsoft will require a lot to update his new Windows7 but he chose to obey the airtel marketer who claim the 2.5G Modem is okay and that the monthly 3GB is enough.
So, he bought the 3GB monthly plan (N5,000) with his 2.5G EDGE airtel internet modem. On getting to his office, the internet service was as poor as it was at the airtel office. He could hardly access the internet. He complained, and I again explained that the cause of the bad connectivity was the poor 2.5G EDGE technology and that he should embrace 4G or at least 3.5G. He appeared to agree with my diagnosis and he promised to pay me for my services the following week.
Later, the police officer began to complain that the work I did on his computer had made him unable to access the internet. He threatened to lock me up and get me to sell my properties to bail myself with N14,000, and then use the money to buy 3.5G MTN modem and the 5GB monthly plan.
After a while, he sent me N10,000. It is now six weeks and I doubt he would ever pay the balance of N11,000.
Please sir, kindly use your good offices to appeal to or compel the ‘oga’ Superintendent of Mushin to save the image of very good senior police officers. There are officers with integrity like Columbus Okaro, HOD Police legal department – he employed my services to teach him computer skills when he was a DC and he would always pay for my time even if there were no classes due to power failure.
I am a hustler. I borrowed the money I used in rendering services to him. He has a job as a police officer. I am a jobless graduate trying to survive.