The Nigeria Police Force says the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reporting ranking police and judicial officers as the most corrupt is “misleading, misrepresentation of facts and based on hearsay”.

This is contained in a statement issued by Jimoh Moshood, the Force Public Relations Officer on Friday.

The NBS carried out the survey in conjunction with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

The police authorities claimed that the so-called survey was carried out “two years ago” and does not reflect the fact that the present leadership of the Force “has fully keyed into the change mantra of the Federal Government of Nigeria, (the) Change Begins with Me (campaign) and total war against corruption”.

Moshood stated that the Force had also established and re-positioned its mechanisms for fighting corruption, bribery and other corrupt tendencies both internally and externally.

“The Nigeria Police Force sees the report as a clear demonstration of mischief and calculated attempt to promote campaign of calumny against police officers,” the statement reads.

“The report is entirely misleading, a clear misrepresentation of facts, essentially based on hearsay which made it unempirical, and the survey instrument absolutely inadequate and therefore a plain distortion of the improved situation in the Force as a result of the renewed commitment and determination to fight corruption, bribery and corrupt tendencies in the ranks of the personnel of the Force,”

“For avoidance of doubt, since the inception of the present administration of the Nigeria Police Force in July 2016, after the reported survey has been conducted and concluded, the Inspector General of Police has introduced and implemented diverse internal reforms aimed at bringing corruption to zero level in the Force.”

According to Moshood, some of the anti-corruption initiatives as introduced by the Ibrahim Idris-led Police Force include: the revitalization of the “X-Squad Unit” which is responsible for the “arrest, detention, investigation and prosecution” of corrupt officers; the launch of the Public Complaints Rapid Response Unit (PCRRU), which is responsible for “receiving and attending to reports of corruption from members of the public against Police officers”; and the collaboration with stakeholders in the criminal justice system and non-governmental organizations to train and re-train Police Personnel to shun bribery and corruption.

The statement the commitment of the Police under IGP Idris to “continue to fight, discourage and shun corruption, bribery and corrupt tendencies within and outside the Force, and continue to discharge its statutory responsibilities according to the rule of law despite the obvious distractions from the report”.