Impunity,
lawlessness and disregard for human life are getting worse in Nigeria. Proof of
this emerged on Saturday when police officers attached to the Speaker of the
Abia State House of Assembly, Chikwendu Kalu, shot officials of the Federal
Road Safety Commission while on patrol.
Two FRSC officials were riddled with
police bullet wounds during the incident on the Umuikaa/Aba-Port Harcourt
Expressway, Abia State. Photographic images of the injured FRSC officials in
the media raise the question of police conduct and impunity on our roads. The really
scary aspect of all this is that the FRSC operatives were unarmed. If
uniformed FRSC officials can be shot in cold blood for doing their job, then
other ordinary citizens are really in deep trouble.
At the
heart of the bloody incident is the wife of Kalu, the complicity of the police
and the State Security Service. According to media reports, the wife of the
Speaker, who was reportedly riding in an SUV, was stopped for traffic violation
by FRSC officials. Instead of obeying the law, the security officials attached
to her started brutalising the FRSC personnel. Some reports alleged that the
Speaker’s wife also joined in the lawless act of beating up the officials.
The issue could have stopped
there but when the Speaker was informed, he reportedly stormed the scene with
his own police details, who he allegedly ordered to shoot at the FRSC
officials, who, by then, were already seated in their patrol vehicle. The
directive nearly cost these men their lives as their bloodied bodies showed.
In
the first place, should police officers obey the Speaker’s unlawful order to
shoot at officials of the Nigerian government, who are not in any way
criminals? Ruthlessly, the police reportedly removed the battery of the FRSC
patrol car so that the injured victims would not be taken to the hospital.
In what
has become a common occurrence, FRSC officials often come under undue assault
in the line of duty. In 2016, a road marshal, Segun Enikuemehin, who
tried to plead with some military men to stop their assault on a civilian ended
up with one of his eyes being plucked out from its socket. He was said to have
successfully rescued the civilian and taken him to the police station. But on
returning to the scene with policemen, the military men took offence and
descended on him, completely damaging his eye.
In another
incident in Calabar in January, Cletus Okune, a driver attached to the Cross
River State Commissioner for Commerce and Industry, Peter Egba, was remanded in
Afokang Prison in the city for allegedly assaulting two members of the FRSC.
The commissioner, according to newspaper reports, was not in the vehicle when
it was impounded for a number of traffic offences, including driving without
fastening of seat belts. But, on arrival at the scene, Egba reportedly ordered
his driver to assault them.
“The commissioner later joined in the beating and
also used a stone to injure a colleague in the head,” Fidelis Eteng, one of the
victims, said. Egba denied ordering the assault. In 2013, there was another case
in which nine operatives of the commission were arrested by a deputy
commissioner of police on allegations of obstructing traffic on the
Enugu-Abakaliki Road in Ebonyi State. Three operational vehicles belonging to
the FRSC were also reportedly impounded, although the vehicles and the
officials were later released.
But the
buck stops at the desk of the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris: he
should immediately order the arrest and prosecution of everyone involved in the
despicable act. The policemen deserve severe punishment for misuse of their
firearms and obeying an unlawful order. Already, the list of individuals who
have been gruesomely murdered or beaten into submission by sadistic policemen
is long and ugly. The fact that innocent people and minor offenders are
routinely being killed by the police is unpardonable. It is, indeed, awful and
shocking that 17 years into the 21st century, policemen will open fire on other
unarmed law enforcement officers or civilians on the orders of a power-inebriated
politician.
If the
allegations against Kalu, the Speaker, are correct, he is unfit for public
office, one of those undesirables that notable cleric, Tunde Bakare, identified
as “the worst of us ruling over the best of us.” And there are many of them
around. He amply reflects how our public office holders hold the people in
contempt; lord it over them and have impunity as their guiding
philosophy. He should be arrested and prosecuted accordingly. The SSS
agent, who also allegedly featured in the brutal attack, should be similarly
prosecuted. Like the policemen, she should be flushed out of the system.
FRSC Corps
Marshal, Boboye Oyeyemi, owes his subordinates, his conscience and Nigeria a
duty of ensuring that justice is done: he should liaise with the highest
authority in the land to see to the prosecution of these wild agents of
destruction.
There is
an urgent need for systemic policing reforms. It is argued that the Nigerian
society “is over-policed and under-secured.” Really, a research finding notes
that Nigeria’s problem is not a lack of officers. More often than not, the
police are themselves a significant source of insecurity, since they are “often
engaged in criminal activities − particularly corruption and extortion.
Nigeria’s police are also feared for their excessive use of force. The police
also misapply themselves. For instance, how many policemen are attached to the
Speaker and his wife? What are the rules of engagement given to the over
100,000 policemen guarding individuals, their wives, family and corporate
bodies? The impression has gained ground that these police maiguards are free to brutalise, intimidate and even shoot
other Nigerians when so ordered by their pampered charges as Kalu’s case amply
demonstrated. This nonsense must stop; the Nigerian Police was not created to
protect a few and oppress the majority.
The fact
that these horrific acts by the police continue relentlessly and becoming ever
more brazen demands a strong response. We encourage the victims to file civil
suits and seek compensation irrespective of the IG’s action. Nigerians should
rise and use all lawful methods to resist and shake off oppression and
impunity.
Tags
Columnists