Police and extra judicial killings in Nigeria

Police and extra judicial killings in Nigeria

By Comrade Aloysius Attah



The origin of the Nigeria police force like all other state police organizations in Africa dates back from the colonial masters that formed it purely as an instrument of control and brutal agent of coercion.



Unfortunately in a post colonial Nigeria even after four decades and nine years of independence and self rule, our state police organization still carry on with its colonial attitudes and relationship with the citizens.



Critical analysis of the nations socio political state character and development from 1960 till the present period shows that independence was not the end of colonial rule and the beginning of national development and democracy. The event simply meant a change from white rulers to indigenous lords and predators.



Not withstanding the foregoing, there is nothing absolutely either in the police enabling law or the nations statute books, that mandates the use of brutality and careless killings by the police in the discharge of their functions. The functions of the Nigeria police are stated in section 4 of the police Act (decree No 23 of 1979).



Regrettably, majority of the officers and men of the Nigeria police have abdicated their responsibility and formulated there own guiding law- I can kill you and nothing will happen.



Penultimate week, a socio cultural group Ohaneze Ndigbo, Abuja chapter stormed the National Assembly at a hearing of the committee on public petitions over the murder of Mr. Christian Onuigbo, 28 a security guard with Play Sports Bar, wuse 11 Abuja by a trigger happy policeman.



According to the Ohaneze deputy chairman Mr. Austin Ifedinezi, the youthful onuigbo married with a baby girl was driving his private car in company of two friends when the police shot him.



His two friends would have been shot dead and all of them labeled as armed robbers if not for the intervention of some members of the neighbourhood that came out and identified them. The police dumped Onuigbo at the Gwagwalada specialist hospital where the medical personnel left him for hours without attention on the claim that they needed clearance from the same police before he could be treated, on the process he lost much blood and died. Six months after his death, his family is yet to get justice as it was gathered that some officers within the force were bent on shielding the killers through unending investigation.



Mr. Onuigbo’s death brought to the force once more the pertinent question on why pollutant viruses have continued to contaminate the police and the culture of impunity that has bedeviled the force like a cankerworm.



There are records of thousands of unresolved cases of extra judicial killings by the Nigerian police and the most distressing part of it is that the perpetrators are allegedly protected to continue in their heinousness.



On March, 10th 2002, two young students Nnaemeka Ugwuoke (16) and Izuchukwu Ayogu (17) were running an errand in their home town of Nsukka when they were chased, beaten and arrested by police who drove them to the police station and handed them over to their DPO Mr. Gambo Sarki (SP).



Few days later their mutilated bodies were found dumped at a construction site in Nkpologwu, a nearby town. Pressures mounted by the Nsukka catholic community and the Civil liberties Organization led the Enugu State police command to commence inquiry into the matter of which the DPO was indicted and recommended for prosecution when it was allegedly discovered that the killing was a premeditated ritual murder for a one-time senator in the area.



The former inspector general of police Tafa Balogun ordered the case file and the DPO to be transferred to Abuja, today, after five years the whereabouts of Gambo Sarki the principal suspect is unknown as conflicting reports said that he had escaped from detention while at another time, the police said they are still investigating. This is very much similar with the infamous Apo six killings in Abuja where the alleged mastermind of the murder DCP Danjuma was reportedly declared missing from custody.



Presently in Anambra state, the Ayalogu family are gnashing their teeth and dying by installment on the alleged killing of their son Mr. Nonso Ayalogu in custody of the men of special Anti Robbery Squad Awkuzu Anambra State.



Nonso was framed up by a supposedly powerful civilian who felt that he had become a stumbling block towards his possession of plots of land he bought at Trans Nkisi Layout Onitsha without the consent of the whole family. Citizen Nonso married with five children was arrested on 28th March 2009 on a trumped charge of attempted kidnap of one Michael Nwakalor. He was in the SARS dungeon for three months without access to any member of his family until the family sent a petition to Abuja over the matter.



It was in Abuja that they were told that their son has been killed. All these are samplers of the shame of a nation whose law enforcement is driven by reasons of force rather than by force of reason. The special Anti Robbery Squad in Anambra State from our findings have been turned to chambers of torture and death as well as a market for the highest bidder.



We are collecting data on their atrocities and will address the issues squarely to the appropriate quarters soonest.



According to the human rights watch, for decades the police in Nigeria have betrayed their responsibility to protect Nigerian citizens and have instead preyed on them for survival. The relationship between the citizens and the police is characterized by brutality, confrontation and exploitation



This is purely unacceptable and another up hill task which the new inspector general of police should rise up and tackle. We say enough of these senseless killings, it is not only absurd but the highest height of criminally that those employed to protect and save lives are the ones now eliminating life unjustly and decapitating the human family.



The provisions of the various international instruments governing the conduct of law enforcement agents should be incorporated into the rules and regulations of the Nigeria police force. Such instruments include the United Nations code of conduct for law enforcement officials, the Declaration on the protection of all persons from being subjected to torture and other inhuman or degrading treatment etc. The time for the true reform of the Nigeria police is now.



Comrade Aloysius Attah

Chairman Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO)

Anambra State Branch.

08035090548

Princemmy@yahoo.com