Today it is commonplace to watch that extra judicial killing is the bane
of the Nigerian Police. What seems more appropriate to declare is that it looks
more like a way of life and the evil is accepted by Nigerians and Nigerian Government
as the norm. Instances are
too numerous to mention. Police officer routinely issue threats to kill people
either in the Police Stations or at check-points. Sometimes such threats come
from senior officers. Various accounts and experiences by this writer and
clearly show what members of the Nigeria’s blue-collar societies pass through
on daily basis in the hands of their supposedly protectors (police) and that
out of every five citizens that have encounters with the Nigeria Police
Personnel, five are extorted and 3 are threatened. And each time the Command of
the Nigeria Police Force opened investigations into such allegations, nothing comes
out of such investigation.
For instance, on 3rd day of
January 2012 while protesters were busy protesting on January 1 fuel subsidy
removal in Ilorin Kwara State, the protests were peaceful in the, a man in his
mid-20s was killed where protesters put up bonfires on several roads in the
state capital, chanting anti-deregulation slogans. It gathered that there were sporadic
shootings by the law enforcement agents (police), who came to the scene
apparently to discourage the protesters from going towards the Government House
Area, along Ahmadu Bello Way,
Ilorin. A stray bullet allegedly
hit one of the protesters on the chest and the Kwara Police Public Relations
Officer, Dabo Ezekiel, claimed that the dead man was hit by the protesters for
refusing to join in the protest. Countless ordinary Nigerians are accosted daily by armed police officers who demand bribes and commit human rights abuses against them as a means of extorting money. These abuses range from arbitrary arrest and unlawful detention to threats and acts of violence, including sexual assault, torture, and even extrajudicial killings all these with the Nigerian Government looking on as if all is well with the Nigerian Police. Even part of the Boko haram crisis rocking Nigerian can be blame on the extra judicial killings of its leader by the police. The awful video footage shown by the Aljazeera Television of the Nigeria Police carrying out extra judicial killing in the consequent clashes with the Boko Haram members call to question the role played by the security forces in the last years Muslim uprising. In the footage a number of unarmed civilians were seen forced to lie down on the street and then shot at a cruel point blank range that were never seen anywhere. Equally more shocking was the pictures that came from the footage were of one of the officers urging his colleague not to shoot the unarmed civilian on the head but rather on the chest. Coming from a security officer meant to protect citizens emanating from the most populous Nation in Africa. These act of extra judicial killing is an example of brazen contempt of the Nigerian police for the rule of law and our governments policy of “turn the other check” to the whole scenario and attitude of Nigerian Security forces.
Another very bazaar case is the situation where the Nigerian Police killed a 20-year old Mr. Victor Emmanuel, for criticizing bribery at road checkpoint along Sanni Abacha Expressway, Yenagoa. By his mothers account “She said witnessing how her son was ruthlessly murdered and her inability to protect him was a traumatic experience that would live with her for the rest of her life.
Grace was pained that despite trying to stop the policemen at one of the checkpoints along Sanni Abacha Expressway, Yenagoa, from slaying her son, they still went ahead to riddle Emmanuel’s body with bullets.
“I saw them shoot my son; no mercy at all, they shot him brutally. As he fell while they were shooting him, the tallest of them still continued shooting him on the ground,” she said.
It is why an average Nigerian feel no remorse for a slain Police officer, its because of the pain the police organization has caused innocent families who have lost loved ones to the extra judicial killings of the Nigerian Police officers who professionalize in harassing and killing innocent people of Nigeria. It is a Job filled with curses from the innocent that have been wrongly accused and killed by the legalized armed robbers, the Nigerian Police “by” force.
Emancipate Nigerian NOW calls on the Federal Government to take a decisive measure to end the recurring extra judicial killings of innocent Nigerian law abiding citizens by the Nigerian police,
Look out for part two of this article
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