THE POLICE AGAIN

My last article was about the men of the police force; now again, I am writing about the police. This explains why I don’t write so often these days. You are few minutes to go to press and another incidents hits the news stream either invalidating your about to be published facts or impressing the need to redirect your facts.

Sadly, I haven’t heard or read anything about the October 16 gruesome killing of Emmanuel Victor right in the presence of his mother. I must admit I haven’t been reading the papers or watching the TV lately; don’t ask me why! My last piece came as a result of my usual critic of the system where I thrive daily to make ends meet; my daily observations as policemen extort bike men and bus drivers.

This incident, unfortunately, not the first of its kind, further points to the fact that the government of Nigeria seem to have armed these officers without putting checks in place. Like I always contend, I don’t intend to outrightly right off all policemen; my father was once an officer of the Nigeria Police and I have every reason to give him a pass mark. Not because he is my father, but he did is best and kept a clean sheet all through his days in the force. Extra judicial killings were recorded back in those years truly but not as rampant as what we have today. What has gone wrong?

My father told me he had to retake a shooting course at the police college because his skills fell below the required average and I was marvelled. I am not sure if officers have that privilege of taking special courses before being churned out into the streets to protect civilians.

Back to Emmanuel’s story, the reason given by the erring officers for shooting him is that he was carrying a bible, a weapon and Indian hemp; isn’t that laughable. While debunking the claim, the commissioner of police, Bayelsa state command, Mr. Hillary Opara, said he doesn’t believe someone carrying a bible coming from the church, could be carrying a weapon and Indian hemp; that is also laughable. Before delving into the commissioner’s reason, I’d like to agree with the police officer that Emmanuel was actually carrying a weapon and Indian hemp, what about that instructs shooting at him several times? Did he resist arrest or made attempts to attack these officers with the said weapon? How come the next move was to shoot at him? He even held that he didn’t know the bullets were getting at him; that presupposes that the young man remained standing while he was being shot at which was against his reasons for shooting.

I can safely conclude he shot to kill. What in all of these paints the picture of a properly trained officer? Nothing I would say.

As for the commissioner’s reason for thrashing the killer cop’s argument; is it enough to reject that argument that Emma was actually carrying Indian hemp and a weapon just because he had a bible with him? Or the commissioner is just playing himself into the heart of the people of Bayelsa by standing on the popular side. For all I care, it is not the first time we have heard of people in church garments running arms not to talk of concealing arms inside bibles or even smoking hemp with pages of the holy bible. It would just be enough for that kind of officer to say it is impossible for a man adorning the turban to conceal bombs under his robe!

Police officers by all standards are human and I don’t intend to take that away from them. However, when such feelings of sympathy is overriding the sense of judgement in cases of public interest, I see them as imbalanced and unfit to hold such commanding positions.

Emmanuel Victor is dead today like many others who have been felled by trigger freaks; his killers are being said to be undergoing in house trials while the public is denied details of the proceedings, I hope it won’t end like the ones we have heard before.

A policeman carrying arms is saddled with a huge responsibility of trust; in my opinion, breaching that kind of trust should not be treated with kids’ gloves. Armed robbers who kill their victims are better off in this situation; it is who they are and what they do but for a man armed with our own tax and sweat, it is just unacceptable.

I hope the commissioner’s pro-people move would yield a true and balanced judgement in the final analysis. It is true that Victor’s family are bereaved but this is a crime against humanity and we all should be concerned. To this end, it doesn’t stop at his family believing the course of justice has been served, we all must see that to have happened before the case is finally put to a logical end.

Some have been killed years back, today, I am writing about Victor, we can’t tell who’s next; it could be me writing this or you reading or anyone else.

Against this background, we should at all time be seen lending our voices to matters of truth whether or not we are directly concerned.

When they came for the Muslims, you claimed to be a Christian; when they came for the Christians you claimed to be a Muslim. When they come for you, you can only be you and no one else.
May God grant the families of all victims true justice and grant them the fortitude to bear the loss.

Adieu Emmanuel Victor.

The Police and His Birth Right

I haven't been writing in a long time and truly, I can't say exactly why. It isn't about being lazy actually; maybe I just haven't had time or simply put I haven't being writing. Thank God, I am writing again.
The Nigerian Police by all standards is one of the most popular institutions we have in Nigeria. Sadly, this popularity isn't informed by the ground breaking record it has kept in crime bursting or intelligence management nor civil conduct.

We all have one or two tales to tell about men of the Nigerian Police. For emphasis sake, 'men' in this contest caters for every sex adorning the police uniform. I would have dedicated a portion of this article on the shameful conduct of women in the police but for all these gender noise; besides, shame has nothing to do with sex!
The lucky ones amongst us are those who haven't directly had something to do with the police or have dealt with the civilised and disciplined few; you must be indeed very lucky. Some of us haven't being so lucky, we have had our bitter share of the ugly tales; no thanks to the ills that has not only eaten deep into the police force but also into the individuals whose decision to join the police was not informed by the drive to serve this country but were only beneficiaries of slot of certain big men in their local governments or misfit to the corporate world.
By chance you probably would have seen this popular sticker that reads: If you think the police is bad, when next you are in trouble, call a Thug!!
Oh my God, what is the difference? Thugs most times might come in handy as they are delivering based on payment made to them. I would call God in my case if I can’t personally fight back. Or maybe call the police to fulfil all righteousness.
That's one way to see it though, the problem of policing in Nigeria is far too complicated and gross to blame in on the average police officer alone. This would only achieve a lamentation trail that is not about to end anytime soon.
How well is an average police officer catered for?
How many civilians are under the direct responsibility of a poorly paid, undertrained and almost frustrated police officer?

What is the take home pay of this officer whose children also deserve to be schooled and cleanly dressed like some children of other workers he is supposed to protect?
What value is attached to his life especially in death?
Providing an answer to these questions would further reflect how far we are from resolving these policing problems. Another interesting trend is the fact that despite being understaffed, government officials across all arms don't seem to see the danger except the few times they read from the pages of newspapers or a close relative is affected by the policing crises. They allocate to themselves savvy officers with properly serviced arms and regular tips to keep his concentration intact; like you would have guessed, they don't keep just one officer! They have extended this goodwill to their rich colleagues who help them wash clean their loots and also to visiting foreigners.

I do not mean foreigners should not be protected; all I am saying is I would like to see a situation where an officer of the Metropolitan police would be sighted at the gate of a Nigerian big man in the name of protecting him.
This is a country of about 150 million people expecting to be protected by a paltry 330000 (Source: http://247nigerianewsupdate.com/?p=5553) police men. Mathematically, approximately 455 would Nigerians have had look up to a police man for protection; this is not to be fellow Nigerians.
Recent finding revealed that of this miserable figure, about 100000 officers which represents 30.30% are attached to individuals(quoting DIG Parry Osayande (retd)). By implication, about 625 Nigerians now look a policeman for protection.
Of the remaining 230000, another huge percentage has chosen to abandon their duty post to mount illegal road blocks to extort, harass and sometimes, kill those they are stationed to protect. I fondly advice my friends to go to a police checkpoint to report when they have problems rather visit empty stations.
The brazen confidence with which the police officers collect tolls from motorcyclist and other transport operators has reached such a height that one can certainly conclude that the proceed get farther than the pocket of the collector.
We have heard few cases of police officers arrested for bribery offenses but we really can't tell how such cases have ended. If this mad rate is anything to go by, then it should be correct to say that atleast 5 police officers should be dismissed on daily basis.

This takes me to the proposed way out. I want to keep it simple; total overhauling and strict orientation.
Better welfare package and improved training programs.
Enrolment should be pegged at minimum qualification and merits be upheld.
There must be a proper account for the ammunitions policemen carry and also their lives as individuals.
When all of these and many more are put in place, the penalty for breaching trust by a police should be tougher and all processes of trial must be open, free and fair.
All erring police officers must be publicly blacklisted and also gazetted for future references.
I hope my proposition doesn't sound like a movie? Every positive suggestion these days have always passed for movie script.
As a parting advice, let's all play our roles in ensuring a secured system by being vigilant and mindful of conducts that could expose us to criminal attacks. The lesser you get yourself into troubles the lesser you would rely on the police.