Commando Attack At Ibereko

It would not be right to refrain from criticism while wrong ideas spread uncheked and allowed to monopolise the field. I refer to my write-ups published by P.M.NEWS on the 17 March 2011, captioned “police and their notorious reputation”. In the last paragraph of that publication, I said “it is high time the government did something fast in order to avoid police induced catastrophe. Mark my words.”. The ugly incident that happened at Ibereko in Badagry where misconduct of some policemen led to the death of an army staff sergeant has further reinforced the urgent need for sincere and holistic reform of the police.

The army staff sergeant was shot and killed by police at a check point at Ibereko in Badagry which prompted a carefully-planned attack by some soldiers (unknown soldiers?) on the DPO, DCO, OP’s Officer and seven other policemen of Badagry division as a collective punishment for the killing of the army staff sergeant by the police.

The question now is, How did it come to this?

Some senior police officers enforce a pervasive system of “returns” in which their junior officers are compelled to pay up the chain of commands share of the money they extort from the public. All the extortions on our highways are with the knowledge of their various DPO’S even the Area Commanders are aware of all these, hence they carry out their atrocities with egregious impunity. The police behaviour is comparable to the social miscreant called “area boys”. Police killing is partly responsible for the congestions in our public mortuaries.

For majority of police officers, the police uniform and other instruments of law enforcement are tools for subsistence and money making. Sometimes, what begins as extortion transforms into other crimes, including stealing, and even a deliberate and premeditated killing, the type that happened to the army staff sergeant at Ibereko. If not for the OP-Mesa, an Army patrol team, that raced to the scene on hearing the gun fire, the killing of the army staff sergeant would have passed for the usual exercise of “shoot-out with armed robbers” and an exhibit weapon would have been planted on the deceased’s body.

Police routinely waste lives on our highways. Anytime you come across them on the road block or checks points, their countenance will change like an animal which suddenly discover some weakling trespassing its territory. They s act without any trace of modesty. We have to consider not only the trauma police have brought on individuals, but also the effect of their conduct in destroying the confidence of the public in them as an organization and the injury which they have done to the country. I am a patriotic Nigerian, don’t misunderstand my stance of objectivity to reflect hatred for the police.

The ugly incident at Ibereko in Badagry has further reinforced the urgent need for a sincere and holistic reform of the Nigerian police. Police is an indispensable organization anywhere in the world because of their statutory functions. However, it is disheartening when some policemen derogate their constitutional roles and resort to extra-judicial killings of defenceless Nigerians. Thousands of innocent Nigerians have been killed by police bullets in inexplicable circumstances.

The killings by the police across Nigeria occur quite often. Usually these go uninvestigated and unpunished. Such killings are sometimes carried out as reprisals for perceived infractions against police personnel or during alleged crime control measure.

Despite the numerous crimes which involve police that are uncovered, police personnel enjoy impunity for these acts. There is no established institution required to ensure police accountability. The jurisdiction of the Police Service Commission (PSC) which has oversight and disciplinary powers over the police, is at least ineffective. Their disciplinary power over the police does not extend to the conduct of the President or the Inspector General of Police (IGP), both of whom exercise supreme operational control over the Nigeria Police Force. Where police abuse occurs in the service of the interest of the President,his political party, or his associates, there is no action taken to ensure accountability.

Similarly, where police abuse rise to the level of a crime, the police remain the primary investigating agency. Even with respect to those issues within the powers of Police Service Commission (PSC), the police have been notoriously unwilling to co-operate with Police Service Commission.

The idea that people don’t have a choice but to continue to endure their maltreatment by the police which is common in our country is what is actually responsible for the mayhem at Ibereko in Badagry. The patience of some Nigerians has been tried to the utmost and their endurance capacity stretched to the elastic limits. The multidimensional nature of these blunders by the police authorities has started to manifest its deadliness.

The army on their own also hear and read about all the atrocities being committed by the police in the various newspapers, and the impunity enjoyed by the police, hence the well planned murder of the DPO, DCO, OP’S officer and seven others, which could best be described as “an eye for eye and a tooth for a tooth” which was carried out with razor-blade efficiency. The reprisal attack is indirectly telling the Inspector General of Police and the Commissioner of Police that there is need to act quickly to avert another looming police/Army catastrophe and also to warn his men that there is no longer culture of impunity. Apart from the Army reprisal attack, there had been several instances where civilians also kill police as a revenge over this type of killings.

All these atrocities of the police deserve the attention of the government and other patriots in this great but poorly governed nation and call for serious intervention to save the masses from the bunch of psychiatric patients in police uniform. The attitude of the police constitutes a matter of great concern to those who are sensitive to an optimal and safe organization of society. The

Police Force is more horrible today than yesterday and it will be more horrible tomorrow than today if a machinery is not set in motion now to avert more serious negative attacks. The problem is, in spite of the unending public outcry, the authorities have done nothing impressive at all to reform the police to uphold the rule of law in all its actions and decisions. A disturbing aspect of the police abuse in Nigeria is the impunity enjoyed by the policemen that violate the law. The Police Force does not discipline or sanction its officers and men for violating the fundamental rights of Nigerians. It is high time we addressed grievances and conflicts before they are expressed in violence and confrontation with the police in future.

State controlled police is not the solution. To do that would be to subscribe to curious illogical viewpoint. Owing to better exposure and wider outlook, I am in support of federally-controlled police.

All these vendetta and retaliatory propensity on the part of Nigerians are as a result our leaders being silent over the numerous police atrocities across the country. Apart from setting up of the panels which never produce any meaningful report, our leaders should know that the present calamities are the direct aftermath of the preference to remain silent by just setting up panel of inquiry with no report coming out. The majority of our so-called Big men and Women in the society dare not come out to condemn the police, not for fear of being killed, but fear of being exposed by the police. It will become a case of pot calling the kettle black.

As for armed robbery and assassinations, the authorities must first trail their guns on the police. Unless officers and men of Nigeria police force are openly and severely dealt with for their active complicity with robbers and assassins through which some of them had amassed wealth, they will not change their ways. Some of the police personnel properties like, jewellery, cars, electronics etc, are exhibits retrieved from suspects’ houses through the execution of search warrants.

Later some of these items are converted to their own personal use while the owners are either killed or sent to prisons through holding charges. I stand to be corrected, the majority of the vehicles being used by police personnel in Nigeria have no papers. They are either stolen outrightly and the owner killed and dumped somewhere or converted exhibit which they acquired illegally. Even the electronic gadgets in their houses have no receipts as well as jewellery.

Those who have ears let them hear!

Holy Qua ran Chapter 3 verse 186, says : “Everyone shall suffer death and you shall be paid your full recompense on the day of judgement. The life of this world is but an illusory enjoyment”

Holy Bible, Revelation Chapter 22 verse 12 says: “ I am coming soon ! And when I come, I will reward everyone for what they have done.

My condolence to the family of the deceased, both the police and the Army. May God almighty grant them the fortitude to bear the loss. May their souls rest in peace. Amen.

•Prince M. A. Akinsemoyin wrote from Lagos.