Speaking at a briefing on Tuesday, Commissioner Ahmed Sanusi described the facilities at the Abuja police command with visible pride. Air conditioners. Television sets. Premier League football on the screen. Suspects watching the news. “They are enjoying it,” he said. “They are not kept in any harsh conditions.”
It is,an interesting statement to make while children abducted from a school in Oyo State remain in captivity for the 26th consecutive day.
The commissioner was not wrong to defend humane detention conditions. Police custody in Nigeria has a long, ugly record on human rights. If detention conditions are actually improving, that deserves to be noted. Due process matters. Dignity in detention matters and this are a major deal.
Howerver, considering the timing, the tone and the specific details of his remarks have produced a contrast that is difficult to ignore.
In Oyo State, a principal named Rachael Alamu appeared on video from captivity to correct the false claims about her abductors’ demands and beg authorities not to play politics with her life. She has been held for nearly a month. The children around her, some as young as two years old, have spent 26 nights in conditions that no police commissioner would describe as VIP. One teacher was reportedly killed in captivity. Another died during the initial attack.
Meanwhile in Abuja, suspects sit under AC watching football..
The commissioner also confirmed arrests of individuals described as “TikTok-ing bandits,” people who used social media to promote or glorify criminal activity. The police deserve credit for those arrests. Tracking criminals through their own social media activity is legitimate and effective police work.
But it raises its own uncomfortable question. If the FCT command has the capacity and technology to trace criminals in reverse order through social media, monitor online activity and make targeted arrests, why are the children in Oyo still waiting? Why is Rachael Alamu still on camera from a bush somewhere, asking Nigeria to take her seriously?
The obvious answer is that these are different commands, different states, different jurisdictions, different operational realities. That’s fair. Nigeria is huge, and its security system is stretched thin.
It’s also true that in the same news cycle, a police commissioner told the country his suspects are comfortable, relaxed and entertained, while a school principal begged for her life from captivity.
