Mr Bright Edafe is a Deputy Superintendent of Police and the Delta State Police Public Relations Officer. He is, like his name, one of the brightest officers in the Nigeria Police Force. He has become like a goldfish, with no hiding place. He recently chatted with julianafrancisnews.com.
What is your greatest challenge as an image maker?
I will be very honest with you, curbing corruption and extortion in the police is a very difficult task, and I think it is mainly because the police are not properly funded. I think that is one of the reasons these corruption issues appear to be rising. But what the Inspector-General of Police and the Delta State Commissioner of Police say is that there is no justification for extortion. Fighting extortion is usually very complex and puts me on the defensive because the public does not like me simply because I wear a uniform as a policeman and my colleagues do not like me simply because I am fighting their excesses and extortion.
It is my greatest challenge actually- sitting on the fence-trying to balance the relationship with members of the public and my relationship with my colleagues out there.
What is your greatest achievement?
My greatest achievement is winning the trust of the public and making some of them even if it is just a few, trust us and they are beginning to see the police in another way based on my actions and tweets.
Many have confirmed the fact that they now want to join the police because they now see that policemen are not the devil many portrayed them to be.
It is a very reasonable achievement for me, and there are awards given to me by three groups I did not know; they just came and commended me due to what I had been doing and, in all honesty, they felt I deserved that award.
How do you handle issues of fake news?
I ensure that I am always active on social media, especially on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and then WhatsApp broadcasts messages. I am always active on those platforms to see, watching to see what is trending, and when I encounter any fake news, I quickly counter it there and then.
Also, I have a broadcast platform where I have over 200 journalists as members, so by the time I send the fact there, they all pick it and by then people will see the fact of the case and what truly transpired. Those are the ways I handle fake news.
How do you handle fake journalists?
I don’t believe there is a fake journalist anywhere. I only believe that there are journalists that are not professional in what they do.
I try to bring them all together and advise them and teach them how things should be done, and as God would have it, they had been cooperating. There is no journalist that I have issues with because those I have met are friendly and helpful.
You mentioned something about Tinted Glass Permit on Twitter…
On the issue of Tinted Glass Permit, the IGP issued a statement through the Force spokesman, that since there is a ban on tinted glass permits, people that have and are using vehicles with tinted glasses should be allowed to be for now.
What our men are instructed to do is to search drivers properly and once there is no evidence of criminality on them, then they should be allowed to go.
However, in my tweet, I was not only talking about policemen but also about other security agencies which included the state-owned agency like the LASTMA and others that participate in traffic duties, to try to correct people. Rather than finding faults, these agencies, including police should cultivate the habit of correcting the drivers.
Do you think Nigerians appreciate their police personnel?
I don’t believe Nigerians do not appreciate the police. I just feel that the criminally minded ones want to make the other Nigerians hate the police. There might be issues of trust but that is why we are there, and that is what we are building. Following my yesterday tweet, people started saying that we just must put in more effort to see that public trust is built.
You also mentioned safe abortion and the law. Please explain further.
On the issue of safe and unsafe pregnancy, there are guidelines that permit safe termination of pregnancy. But there is a section of the law that says that a woman who takes anything for the purpose of terminating a pregnancy is liable to imprisonment when found guilty.
What measure has your command put in place to ensure a synergy between the police, youth, and curbing crimes?
We have been going on sensitisation programmes with intention of curbing crimes, especially among the youth.
We have been to primary and secondary schools to educate young Nigerians on the need to be wary and to care for the boy-child. This is because most of the crimes we are facing today emanate from the boy child, and not from the female child.
Parents tend to focus more on the female child than the male ones, so part of this is to inform parents to take care of the boy child as they do the female child.
How would you describe the war on cultism by your command?
We have also been on the lookout for those that are particularly involved in cultism. We have charged between 300 to 500 suspected cultists to court and, we got some of them that are the kingpins. These and much more are what the Command has been doing to curb cultism in the state.
What is your parting shot to Delta State citizens?
I really want to appreciate Delta citizens for everything they have been doing. The manslaughter and criminal activities in the state are not just down to the activity of the police alone, but it is also from the activities and information we have been getting from members of the public. I still want them to know that more is expected because security is no longer a one-man’s business. It is a collective effort as we want the public to continue to monitor their surroundings and report any suspicious movement to the police.
