Editorial

For how long had the Ekiti lawless policeman been stabbing people?

IT just cannot be cheering news that all too often, certain personnel of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) engage in conduct that calls their professionalism, compliance with the rule of law and patriotism into question. Looking down on the civil populace that they are paid to protect as if they are some kind of subhuman species, these police personnel visit brutality and naked terror on them, acting in ways that suggest that they expect no comeuppance for their egregious action. For instance, following public outcry last week, the police in Ekiti State arrested and detained a policeman who had allegedly stabbed a man in his family home in the Ise-Ekiti area of Ekiti State. There had been consternation and tension after the daughter of the victim shared several videos online, crying for justice for her father. According to the young lady, the policeman in question serves as an orderly to a local government chairman. Trouble started, she said, when her brother had an argument with a female classmate of his who happens to be the policeman’s girlfriend. According to her, the classmate reported the argument to her boyfriend, who then stormed their home, accompanied by two police officers, claiming to have come to make an arrest. But their targeted victim was not around, and then the policemen chose to go even further rogue.

According to the lady, her elder brother who also saw them and wanted to know what was happening was set upon by the policemen, who sought to arrest him in place of her brother. This drew the attention of her father, who demanded to know what his son had done. That was when, she said, things took a drastic turn. Hear her: “He went on to stab my dad with his fellow police officer because his girlfriend was arguing with my brother at school. They went to our house to deal with my brother, but on getting there, they found my brother absent but met my dad and elder brother. Fortunately, my dad was able to use his hand, but the knife tore through his hand.” She called on the relevant authorities, including President Bola Tinubu and the Commissioner of Police in the state, to intervene and ensure that justice was served. The internet is suffused with pictures of the victim and his injuries.

Reacting to the incident, the state police spokesperson, SP Sunday Abutu, said the accused had been arrested. He said: “The Ekiti State Police Command has noticed a video circulating on the social media where a young girl (name withheld) was complaining that her father was stabbed on his arm by a policeman serving in Ise-Ekiti due to an argument that ensued between her brother and the policeman’s girlfriend. The Ekiti State Police Commissioner, CP Joseph Eribo, upon noticing the complaint, directed the DC CID to take over the case and ensure a thorough investigation is conducted. Meanwhile, the officer in question has been taken into custody for investigation and other necessary actions. The command is calling everyone, especially the family members of the victim, to be calm as nothing short of justice will be delivered in this case as soon as possible.”

For how long had the suspect in this case been engaged in acts of lawlessness? If the suspect could easily draw a knife and plunge it callously into an innocent civilian’s arm in this case, is there any reason to suppose that that was the first time he had engaged in such illegal conduct? And if it wasn’t, how had he escaped sanction before now? It is unthinkable that a policeman would proceed to the home of his girlfriend’s classmate in order to arrest him following an argument with his girlfriend, but that, precisely, is what allegedly took place in this case, evidencing the belief that many members of the NPF abuse their powers by charging people with non-existent offences. For surely, if the target of the policeman’s ire had been home when he (the policeman) and his colleagues came on their revenge mission, he (the young man) would certainly not have been charged with his original “crime” of arguing with a policeman’s girlfriend. Rather, he would probably have been accused of serious crimes, say battery or cultism, and his parents/family members would have had to cough up a considerable sum to secure his bail. When policing descends to the level that people are arrested over arguments, mere arguments, with officers’ girlfriends, then it is time to question the very essence of policing, and to ask the authorities what they plan to do to arrest such a patently criminal, lawless state of affairs.

Why stab a man because his son had been in an argument with your girlfriend? Imagine what this lawless policeman would do if he was a Divisional Police Officer or even Commissioner of Police! It certainly bodes ill for Nigeria that once you know a uniformed man, you can invite him to arrest anyone you want to punish. What is the business of the lawless policeman in the quarrel between two young adults? And why seek to arrest the relatives of the suspect when even arresting the man himself would have been an outright illegality? To make matters worse, in his illegal undertaking, the lawless policeman allegedly had company. The colleagues who accompanied him on his lawless raid did not have the decency to advise against such a course of action, apparently because they too had not expected any negative repercussions.

We are sick and tired of calling on members of Nigeria’s uniformed profession to obey the laws of the land and stop seeing members of the civil populace as inferior. It is incumbent on the authorities to ensure the retraining of police and other uniformed personnel in line with global best practices. Policing should not look like terrorism under any guise. If found guilty, the suspects in this case should be punished severely to serve as a deterrent to would-be criminals in police uniform.

Tribune Editorial Board