A major scandal
is brewing within the heart of the nation's best-known police college, the
Police College, Ikeja, Lagos.
Tinuola
Akande, a former cadet, is one of the individuals caught in the web of this
scandal. The other characters in the drama, which started earlier this year,
are other female cadets, senior police officers and an abortion syndicate
comprising medical doctors at the police hospital.
Akande
and other police cadets were some months into their training at the police
college when they were told that they would have to take a pregnancy test. They
were also told that female cadets who tested positive would be dismissed. So,
when she tested positive during the routine test, Akande knew there was danger.
Desperate to save her career, she sought the help of an abortion syndicate in
the police hospital. The syndicate promised to abort the pregnancy and also
find a way to change the result of the first test and replace it with the new
one.
According
to Akande, the abortion was conducted on February 3, 2017. She said the doctor
collected N15,000 from her before she was smuggled into the hospital in the
middle of the night and a medical doctor conducted the abortion.
After the
abortion, she was still dismissed. She went back to the doctor and he told her
to be prayerful. Akande also said that six of them had abortions at the police
hospital but the results were not changed.
25 year-old
Hafsat Mohammed, a mother of one and a former cadet inspector from Kebbi State,
is one of the cadets who tested positive to the pregnancy test.
"When
the pregnancy test conducted on me showed that I was positive, one of the
doctors at the police hospital asked me to bring N35,000 so that I could abort
my pregnancy. I told him I had only N15,000. He said N15,000 was not enough.
So, from that day, I ignored him and deleted his number," she said.
Mohammed,
who was desperate to remain in the school, went for the abortion at a private
hospital. She paid N10,000. Yet, she was dismissed. She believed she was
dismissed because she refused to cooperate with the abortion syndicate at the
police hospital.
"Two weeks
ago, the commandant called five of us and said a signal from Abuja said we
should be dismissed. I have lost my pregnancy. But I know my name was included
for dismissal because I did not agree to pay the doctor at the police hospital
for abortion. My pregnancy was eight weeks. My husband knew about the abortion.
Now we are both pained because the police work I tried to keep is gone,"
she lamented.
Twenty-four-year-old
Adejobi Oluwaseun, who hails from Lagos State is among the dismissed five. He
told our correspondent that a senior police officer invited her and asked for a
bribe to falsify the pregnancy test results.
Oluwaseun said,
"I was a cadet constable. My pregnancy was not up to a month. I had the
abortion outside the police hospital. I did not initially know the doctors at
the hospital were collecting money (to carry out an abortion and change the
list).
"We were on
the field and we having a practice session on a day when I was called to the
hospital. A senior police officer said I should bring money so that she could
help falsify the pregnancy test results. I told her I would see her later. She
then said I should go.
"One of the
persons that also tested positive to the test later told me that she paid
N15,000 to a doctor (name withheld) and had her pregnancy aborted. I was sad
that she did not inform me to take that option and now I have been dismissed
from the training."
According to
Punch, all the cadets at the Police College, Ikeja, started their training on
November 31, 2016. The duration of the training is 12 months for cadet
inspectors and nine months for cadet constables.
The inspectors
were drawn from all 36 states of the federation while the constables were
selected from Lagos, Osun and Ondo states. About 2,000 police trainees are
currently at the college.
The president of
Nigerian Medical Association said that the security agencies must investigate
and bring anyone found culpable to face the law.
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