The police and the Benin driver

THE outrage over the inhuman treatment meted out to a commercial bus driver, Kester Edun, by some policemen in Benin, Edo State, recently is yet to abate. Many can still not fathom what could have warranted chaining a Nigerian citizen to a police van. Yet that was the lot of the hapless driver in the hands of some power-drunk and undisciplined policemen.  In their usual but annoying practice of harassing  motorists to extort money,  the policemen  reportedly flagged down the driver’s bus, searched the bus, the driver and the passenger in the vehicle but found nothing incriminating on them. Surprisingly, however, the passenger suddenly took to his heels when the policemen found an item suspected to be hemp on the ground. But the security operatives refused to pursue and apprehend the fleeing passenger even when Edun reportedly advised them to do so.

This marked the commencement of the ordeal of the driver because the police insisted that he was an accomplice of the passenger who bolted.  He was subsequently cuffed to the patrol van and reportedly dragged on the road until he fainted. A passer-by who protested against the brutality was allegedly arrested, detained and extorted. Another compatriot who recorded the sordid event on his mobile phone was also arrested and his phone seized.  But apparently, the barbaric and despicable event was recorded by more than one person, as it eventually went viral on the social media.

It is rather saddening that the police’s story has not changed from the sordid tale it has always been in spite of the much talked about reform. Dishonourable acts still abound in the force:  extortion of money from motorists on the highways and street roads goes on unabated. Till date, the police still unabashedly take bribes to admit suspects to bail even though it is conspicuously displayed on the walls in their stations that bail is free. Instances of professional misconduct and cold-heartedness by the police are legion. Recently, a Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in charge of Ijesatedo Division, Lagos State, Mohammed Yakubu, was arrested for killing one Jamiu Ayoade at his friend’s birthday party. Also, a medical doctor while returning from an emergency call was, few weeks ago, harassed and extorted by some policemen in Lagos. They allegedly collected the sum of N45, 000 withdrawn from an Automated Teller Machine (ATM) in the wee hours by his wife who sensed that unpleasant consequences might ensue if her husband continued to insist that the police should be professional.

It would appear that the police are not in a hurry to drop the toga of  the most undisciplined and unprofessional security agency in the country.  As one callous act is deplored, another gets done in a cycle of unending brutality and criminal indiscretions by an institution that continues to harbour  some  personnel who have developed a seemingly incurable  penchant for acting outside the confines of their professional mandate. Indeed, it is becoming much easier to see the truth in the usually perfunctory observation by many Nigerians that many policemen are too intellectually ill-equipped to appreciate the essence and imperatives of accountability. Many of them see the power conferred on them by the state and the arms and ammunition given to them as a means of making pecuniary gains and brutalizing innocent citizens whose lives and property they are meant to protect.  The lofty ideal of exercise of power with responsibility and accountability is unappealing to them.

Otherwise, why would well-trained policemen tie a suspect to their patrol van and drag him on the road? Was their objective to summarily execute the suspect, which was what would have happened if some passers-by had not intervened?  And assuming but not conceding that the crime allegedly committed carries a capital punishment, is it the place of the police to administer it? Why is it that the unscrupulous police officers did not give a thought to the possibility that they could be held accountable for their actions? Could it be they took solace in the culture of impunity which had always ensured that they were not sanctioned for similar or even more grievous acts in the past?

Whatever the case, it is gladdening to know that the erring policemen have reportedly been arrested and detained on the orders of the Assistant Inspector-General (AIG) of Police in charge of Zone 5 in Benin City, Mr.  Abubakar Mohammed.  We expect the AIG, who reportedly described the actions of the policemen as unprofessional and a violation of democratic policing, to ensure his men in the Edo State command do not change the story or tamper with the case. Mohammed should make certain that a painstaking investigation of the incident is carried out, the culprits made to face the wrath of the law, and members of the public informed accordingly.  Cases of professional misconduct in the Nigerian Police are becoming too rampant, embarrassing and intolerably dangerous. It is time the police high command took genuine and pragmatic steps such as training, re-training and a thorough re-orientation of their officers and men in order to put paid to the burgeoning indiscipline and lawlessness in the force.