This is why the Police Reform Bill must be speedily passed, so we use the litmus test of the law to sift the good from the bad and I urge that the deliberation begins as soon as Tuesday for the law to take its due course.
Her name is Linda Igwetu, the first of her name, shot in her gut by 3am, along Ceddi Plaza in Abuja, last year. She was celebrating a passing out parade that was long overdue, fraught by several postponements and uncertainties. And when finally the July date was announced, she was shot some few hours before she could collect that discharge letter. The Culpable police Officer was Benjamin Peter. The Police promised to persecute him, but till date, he was only dismissed and remanded, thereafter the case was closed. We don’t know if Justice has been fully served or Senate President Bukola Saraki kept to his own bargain.
March 31st 2019 was when tragedy struck. This time, it claimed Kayode Johnson, an easy-going 36-year-old. He went to watch ball at Kingstine-Jo, a distance not too far from home. An act that any young passionate football lover his age would do- an English Premiership League match for that matter! And that was the last heard of him. If he had known he wouldn’t come back later that day, maybe he would have stayed back to cook and made a video out of it. His antecedents point out that he was a very perfect cook. But we are mere mortals who do not know what the future might bring and so we do the things we ought to; completely oblivious of what would happen the next minute.
On a good day, the Special Anti-Cultism Squad would have raided the area, picked who they wanted and made off with the person. But Kolade was as innocent as the wind, with one purpose in mind- to watch the Liverpool vs Tottenham match and go home until a scuffle escalated and two bullets singled him out in his gut. This is something that would have been well prevented if we have a police reform bill or an act regulating gun violence. Naturally, no officer should be brandishing an armed AK47 in public. It should be disabled from spontaneous fire with its safety on. It is not an undercover or black-ops operation. It is a mere arrest of a suspect- who is presumably innocent until proven guilty in court. It should have been a shotgun of 6 shots or a pistol (New York style) that is holstered and kept in a gun pouch; not inside one’s pants. This brings us to the fact that Nigerian Police are not even well equipped, trained or disciplined.
The Nigerian Police Force is the least disciplined arm of Government, completely ignorant of its role in serving and protecting the lives and properties of its citizens, so they seek as an entity, control over the Nigerian populace by means of the authority their uniform permits, if only the President knows how disgraceful and abusive they are to the oaths they took when first given that badge. A badge that comes with honour and respect- one they have degraded to now embody hooliganism, disrepute, disrespect, and cultist tendencies. Several accounts have continued to denigrate both F-SARS and SACS as a group of blood spewing rascals, street urchins and hardened criminals who smoke, drink, collect bribes and arrest well-meaning Nigerians indiscriminately under the guise of the uniform.
This is sole the reason members of the Special Anti-Cultism Squad (SACS) and the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) will be continually misunderstood in their objective and outlook since all they do is cut young innocent Nigerians down in their prime for no just cause, most times as a result of wrong investigations, wrong intuitions or just their innate desire to disgrace and tarnish images of successful youngsters roaming the streets.
Not many Nigerians get the courage to start over. Kolade, an aspiring musician motivated by the likes of Dagrin, sought to come back to Nigeria to begin a career for himself and a new life. He had survived the xenophobic attacks in the Xhosa region and was back to being responsible for his girlfriend and child. His only offence was watching late evening football, and an egoistic trigger-happy policeman who initially said: “I am going to kill someone today.” Death and power are in the life of the tongue, a biblical verse quotes. Maybe that’s why two bullets suddenly manifested in Kolade’s groin.
While listening to an analysis of this event on radio, one of the contributors said: “we get the police we deserve.” But tell me if it is anybody’s fault that a hardworking 25 year old will own a highly priced Range Rover or Toyota 2018 model, or a laptop or wear a fancy haircut to show-off. Whether the individual decides to show-off his wealth and affluence or not, it should never be the average policeman headache. He chose that life! He chose to be in the sun! He chose to be at checkpoints! He chose to be on the roads and on the move all the days of his life! He chose to apprehend hoodlums and criminals! He chose a life to serve and protect till the last day and whatever guilty conscience or hatred stemming from the successes of a 26, or 27 year old should not bother him, for any reason that would require humiliation, indiscriminate arrest or detention at worst. No rule in Nigeria presupposes arrest before investigation or detention more than 48 hours! The Police NG should understand that we are different people with different definitions or levels of success. One’s success should not bother the other. But in Nigeria this is not so, the police carry out raids without proper Intel in youth dominated areas and arrest youngsters brandishing dyed hairs, rings, and tattoos just because they believe these components are “alien to the Africa culture.” They forget that people have fundamental human rights to life, association, personal liberty and what to do with their bodies. Why not arrest Bobrisky if it hurts you so?
On the flipside, maybe we do get the police we deserve. Last year 10,000 slots for police constable were opened for recruitment. In less than 12 days, not less than 104,000 applicants have thrown in an application. Someone will say the current surge of unemployment is the reason why a certain set of people who are not qualified to be officers of the law are the ones in charge today. We have succeeded in churning out Police Officers who have no love for the profession, cannot handle their emotions around a gun, cannot appropriately wield a gun, lack emotional intelligence, are poor conversationalists, a rotten lot of officials marred by corrupt practices, not too fit enough to provide security, sluggish, pot-bellied, not heroic, unpatriotic, lacking empathy, and unfit, incapable of being entrusted with the power to protect human lives and properties. This is why the Police Reform Bill must be speedily passed, so we use the litmus test of the law to sift the good from the bad and I urge that the deliberation begins as soon as Tuesday for the law to take its due course.
The law has started to take its course. However, it gladdens me that Inspector Olalekan Ogunyemi will be remanded for 30 days- that is if no appeal is granted till this month is over. Nevertheless, the battle is far from being won. We need to start the revolution of police brutality from this point till the Police Reform Bill is passed and the punishment for killing a Nigerian as an officer of the law is very stiff. Do I need to reiterate the popular rhetoric used in America that: Black lives matter? How many more lives will be lost to Police Brutality? Isn’t it enough that we already have several things in our society to deal with? Why can’t the Police be sent to Sambisa or Zamfara to test their bullets on insurgents and bandits? Many of them would cower away but when it comes to human life, it can be easily taken, without any remorse or penalties.
Strict monitoring must be taken to make sure the Police discipline their own this time for good and in the eye of the teeming public. Till date, no one knows what has become of Linda Igwetu’s case and whether Benjamin Peter fully faced the wrath of the law or not. Inspector Olalekan Ogunyemi should be made to face the stiff ambits of law and maybe his colleague at the scene of the crime, Sergeant Godwin Orji should not be made to get off so easily- to serve as a deterrent to other members of the anti-cultism squad. As an addendum, the law should leave no stone unturned in the investigation of this dire matter because even though Kolade’s father, Alhaji Remi Lukman was calm, a loss is still a loss. Life is fickle, and only divine providence brings life back.
Last Year, it was Linda Igwetu. A week ago, it was Kolade Johnson. You could be next, if we don’t take this blood sucking demons off our streets.