Recently there has been an international uproar at the
number of black people being shot dead by the police in
America. The situation has become so bad that an
organisation called ‘Black Lives Matter’ has been set up
to draw awareness to the problem. Endorsed by a
number of top black American celebrities the group is
working hard to prevent further extra-judicial killings
through peaceful protests.
Far away from the shores of America, and the attention
of the world media, the same thing is happening in
Nigeria too: trigger-happy policemen – mostly SARS
operatives – are shooting and killing innocent people on
a daily basis.
In most recent months well-documented cases of extra-
judiciary killings by the police include:
Two workers were shot dead by the police at a rally in
Nasarawa state in July.
Two protesting youths killed in Umomi in Kogi state in
August.
Lagos SARS mistakenly kill a 20-year old student while
chasing a suspected fraudster in September.
In September, the blogger Chukwuebuka Isidore, better
known as Ghostmode, was shot dead by the police in
Port Harcourt.
These are just a few cases that are documented and
mentioned in the press, many others go unreported with
only the families of the deceased knowing they’ve lost a
loved one. Sadly there is no justice for the victims or
their families as the guilty police officers are very rarely
reprimanded. There will be no inquiry; no court trial and
most offending officers are back on the streets within
hours.
Most notorious for extra-judiciary killings is SARS – the
Special Anti-Robbery police Squad – set-up to combat
violent crime. Adequate firearms training is not given to
police officers who carry guns and further psychological
tests would reveal that a great many of them are not
mentally fit to be in possession of a firearm – there are
even unconfirmed reports that many of them operate
under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
In other countries extra-judiciary killings by the police
are taken very seriously but not in Nigeria where their
superiors tend to turn a blind eye.
How can people have faith in the police when they know
they’re likely to be shot dead for refusing to give a
trigger-happy policeman a bribe? And the police,
themselves, knowing they’ll never be prosecuted will
carry on killing innocent civilians. And it’s not just
shooting people they’re guilty of; because they wear a
uniform they seem it fit to beat innocent people to a
pulp, punishing others – kicking, punching and torturing
– in ways one would not expect a police officer to
behave.
A recent Amnesty International report entitled: ‘Nigeria:
You have signed your death warrant’ points out that the
Special Anti-Robbery Squad(SARS) are ‘…subjecting
people to horrific torture methods including hanging,
starvation, beatings, shootings and mock executions..’
whilst at the same time getting rich by extorting bribes.
Armed with guns they become a law unto themselves
and use their weapons with impunity. The question on
everybody’s lips is how long are they going to go on
killing innocent people before the government steps in
to do something about it.
The police in their defence will probably argue that there
are a lot of armed hardened criminals out there that need
to be dealt with properly hence the reason to use lethal
force and weapons. This understandable if they’re
dealing with armed robbers but not unarmed civilians. If
they can’t shoot straight, and are always hitting
bystanders, they should be taught how to and if they
can’t see properly perhaps they need to take eye tests –
there is a big difference between an armed and unarmed
person!
But yet again the Nigerian Police are well known for
their legendary use of excessive force (- and abuse)
when dealing with anyone they deem to be a suspect.
Everybody is innocent until proven guilty and killing
people at random doesn’t constitute justice – it’s an
unlawful killing whichever way you want to look at it.
Armed police should be trained to use their weapons
wisely – returning fire only when fired upon is
understandable but shooting – dead – unarmed civilians
is not a tolerable behaviour in a supposedly civilized
society. Beating up people for minor misdemeanours or
refusal to give bribes is not also an acceptable
behaviour.
Most Nigerians support and follow #blacklivesmatter in
America, condemning the deaths of innocent black
people over there, but what about what’s happening on
your own doorsteps? They do say charity begins at
home. Perhaps it’s time to start a new movement in
Nigeria – #blacklivesmatterinnaijatoo!
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