IG should check police killings and brutality

Posted by admin Headlines, Nigerian Police Friday, November 23rd, 2012

DESPITE the outcry against police killings and brutality over the years, the problem has not abated. Instead, the police have become more emboldened in recent times, harassing, intimidating and sometimes killing innocent citizens in a way that suggests that violence has become an acceptable policing strategy in the country. It is wrong, uncivilised and criminal. It is time the authorities of the Nigeria Police Force took drastic measures to put a permanent stop to this problem.

And there is an appalling array of cases from which to choose. Earlier in the month, a policeman in mufti was said to have shot and killed a bus conductor in Ketu area of Lagos. The security agent reportedly demanded his N50 balance from the conductor. But the conductor allegedly slapped him after some argument, resulting in the shooting incident. This led to riots and disruption of commercial activities at Ketu.

The restriction of motorcycle operators from certain roads in Lagos has also provided the police with an excuse to violate people’s rights. Media reports have it that some of these black uniformed men go beyond their brief to arrest, brutalise and extort money from motorcycle riders.

Policemen and women are, of course, required to do a difficult and dangerous job. And it is one which requires a culture of loyalty, camaraderie and internal strength. But part of the problems of the police is borne out of frustration. Having been ordered to dismantle all roadblocks in the country, the security agents have become uncomfortable and have been unnecessarily aggressive. Perhaps, they are still ruing their loss of extra revenue from these illegal roadblocks.

Besides, some of these policemen are poorly trained. A bizarre incident occurred recently at Ikota, Lagos, when a resident sent a distress call to the police after an armed robbery attack. The police were said to have responded to the call after about one hour, but ended up shooting those they had come to rescue. The victims happen to be one Femi Badejo of Access Bank and his security guard, Joshua Musa. Miraculously, they are still alive in hospital to tell the story.

The question is: Were the Police trained to shoot indiscriminately at unarmed people or to only shoot when there is a clear evidence of danger? Policing in modern world has gone beyond just terrorising people with guns. It demands more of intelligence. It requires men and women of high integrity who realise that they are paid to protect the citizenry, not to brutalise them.

Across the country, it is the same story of rights violations. It is as if the more people cry out, the more the brutality. And, rather than caution their men, the police authorities appear to be indulging them. A typical example is the recent incident where the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Umar Manko, ordered that a correspondent of The PUNCH be marched out of the press conference he addressed at the police headquarters in Ikeja last week. The crime of the reporter was that he reported the shooting of the banker, Badejo, and his security guard by the police in Lagos.

While we sympathise with the police who, ironically, have lost some men to bandits in recent times, we regret that their mishandling of robbery incidents has continued to break the hearts of the victims’ families. Like the Badejo incident, a mother of four, Mrs. Funmilayo Abudu, was shot dead by the police in Sagamu, Ogun State, in December 2008. The woman was caught in the crossfire between the law enforcement agents and armed robbers, but the security men enthused that they had killed a female leader of the bandits. Media reports earlier this year indicated that a Sagamu High Court awarded N5m damages against the police as compensation to the family of the deceased.

A human rights group, International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, estimates that over 54,000 Nigerians were killed illegally between 1999 and 2011. Early in the year, the Inspector-General of Police, Muhammed Abubakar, admitted to extrajudicial killings by members of the police force and unlawful detention of innocent citizens. Sad to say, the families of some of the victims end up not getting justice. They should redouble their efforts to get justice for victims of police violence.

This has continued to give us bad image abroad. The global human rights organisation, Amnesty International, has been on a campaign to stem extrajudicial killings in Nigeria. In a report entitled “Killing at Will”, released in December 2009, Amnesty International indicted our police for extrajudicial killings. The report said the majority of the hundreds of unlawful killings perpetrated by the police every year went un-investigated, and the police officers involved went unpunished. Rather than address these issues, the authorities of the police described AI’s report as a “mission to kill the Nigeria Police, wipe out her records and bury her aspirations.”

Our law enforcement agents should realise that they are paid to protect lives and property and not to kill the very people they are supposed to protect. The Inspector-General of Police owes it as a duty to rein in his men. All those who killed innocent citizens must be brought to book.

It is impossible for the Nigeria Police Force to eliminate every bad apple from its ranks. But it should take a serious look at its recruitment process. The serial violence demonstrates the importance of selecting officers with the right temperament for the job and training them well. Past experiences have shown that some individuals recruited into the police force were of questionable characters. Some were known to be ex-convicts. Last March, police authorities charged 23 students of Ikeja Police College to court with falsification of educational qualifications. A serious security outfit like the police must conduct serious background checks on those they intend to recruit. They should also move against corruption and indiscipline that are ravaging the force.

-Punchwp_posts