LAGOS residents have remained perplexed by the surge in extrajudicial killing of civilians by personnel of the Nigeria Police in the state in the past weeks. For successive weeks, there were reported cases of misuse of firearms by policemen which resulted in mortalities and foisted untold grief on the families of the victims.
Although the circumstances of the slayings varied, desperation to make quick money from people suspected to be guilty of a wrongdoing, most commonly internet fraud, has been identified as a chief reason for the excessive display of grisly wantonness and arbitrariness by policemen.
In cases where civilians do not suffer wrongful deaths at the hands of the law enforcement officers, the cops have been accused of turning law abiding citizens, especially people with legitimate businesses, to meal tickets.
Onnoghen rejects CCT’s judgement
For example, Sheu, a football viewing centre operator in the Araromi area of Lagos City, alleged that constant police raids have become a torn in the flesh for him and his business. “They also contributed to the collapse of my sports betting business. They were always giving excuses that they were looking for cult members but they raided people whom they could not link to any cult group or activities,” he told Saturday Tribune in an interview.
“Initially, I was running a football viewing centre and from the little money that I was able to save, I opened a sports betting shop and I was running the two businesses. All of a sudden, the police started raiding the viewing centre and people started staying away from the place. They would come in a commando style and pack as many people as possible. The responsibility of seeking the release of those arrested in my place usually placed a huge burden on me.
“When the viewing centre was deserted by people, I had to concentrate on the sports betting shop but things got worse as different police teams come to collect money from me on a weekly basis. Anytime I refused to oblige them, my shop would be raided and my customers arrested. I had to sell that shop,” Sheu added.
A victim of illegal police raid at a drinking spot in the Ejigbo area of Lagos, Taiwo, said the police take pleasure in raiding drinking spots and brothels where the owners do not give them money regularly.
“At Macvilaa, located at Oke Afa, Ejigbo, just because the owner travelled and did not settle them for some time, they came and arrested everyone – customers and staff. Each person was released after paying N10,000. They were ready to shoot anyone who tried to argue with them,” the man said.
Taiwo described the scene, saying “The policemen came in suddenly and shouted, ‘Everybody stand up and raise your hands’. They then went into each room at the brothel where they arrested half-dressed ladies, while the daring ones among them escaped through the window half-naked.”
A bar operator along the Obafemi Awolowo Way in Ikeja, who asked for anonymity, expressed mixed feelings as he discussed police activities at his bar with Saturday Tribune: “The first time they came to my place, they almost disrupted my activities for that day. They wanted to arrest some of my customers who were wearing dreadlocks. I had to intervene and plead with them to consider the implication of such arrest for my business. Since then, they come from time to time. They have become regular visitors. At times, they are given money and at other times, they are given free drinks. The policemen help many of us to prevent breakdown of law and order in our joints. Their presence gives a sense of security to many of our customers.”
Any policeman with a gun now scares us –Lawyer, residents
Lawyers are usually very confident around policemen and often wear undisguised arrogant postures and disdain in addressing the men in black whether they are armed or not, and irrespective of where such faceoff is taking place, including police stations. Police officers, too, have a way of deferring to the men of the law in the handling of clients those lawyers represent. Maybe not anymore. There seems to be a reversal of roles and lawyers do not appear to be ready for the risks of taking on ‘loaded’ police officers again.
A legal practitioner, Mr Aderinsola Adeniyi, told Saturday Tribune that a mere sight of a policeman with a gun these days gets him “extremely terrified.” His intense fear is borne out of the recent cases of extrajudicial killings in the state which got the acting Inspector General of Police, Muhammed Adamu scampering to the state in the outgoing week to read Riot Act to his officers and men, particularly the immediate supervisors of the trigger-happy junior officers.
According to the lawyer, the recent cases of extrajudicial killings have made it “extremely terrifying” for him to see a policeman with a gun, even as he has been warned to be careful around gun-toting policemen to avoid being a victim of stray bullet.
Continuing a tradition?
Nearly all residents of the state spoken to by Saturday Tribune took the police IG’s threat to his officers and his assurances to the people with a pinch of salt.
Adegbenro, a resident of Isolo, said the police boss’s visit and tough talk would not make him change his mind about the police, considering their record and the successive extrajudicial killings of the past weeks.
“I have never been comfortable around policemen who carry guns. Apart from the fact that I have a phobia for gun, reports of stray bullets and police killing of innocent citizens cause me a great worry whenever I am around gun- wielding policemen,” he told Saturday Tribune.
The resident, while reacting to the warning by the acting Inspector General of Police, said, “This is not the first time that a police boss would give order like that. How have they ensured the execution of such order in the past? I see the IG’s order as just a lip service until he proves me wrong.”
Lagos and police killings have a history that the residents would want to wish away which got to a head during the heady days of the now disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), when brutality, illegal arrest and extortion became a daily occurrence. When it almost got to the point of the residents resorting to mob action as a way of reprisal, the Federal Government, through the then acting president, Yemi Osinbajo, rose to the occasion by disbanding the much-dreaded security outfit.
The recent killings have, however, generated much more uproar and the increase in the spate of the abuse of firearms by security personnel leading to the death of innocent citizens is getting all stakeholders worried that something much more terrible might be in the offing if something drastic is not done about the “weekly execution” of residents of the state by those being paid with their “taxes to defend them.
Why they kill –Expert
A criminologist, Dr Tade Oludayo, while speaking on extrajudicial killings by policemen, blamed misuse of firearms on colonial orientation, poor funding, frustration and disrespect for officers and men of the Nigeria Police Force by the citizens.
“The incidence of extrajudicial killings which occurred recently is a function of the colonial orientation of the Nigerian police where the police was used to intimidate, harass, extort and silence any voice of dissent.
“Nigeria’s post colonial experiences have not departed from this evil colonial heritage. All security agencies use the slightest opportunity to show imbalance in power relations. Also there is poor governance structure in the Nigerian police, where officers are deployed to make ‘returns’ to the superior officer-in-charge at the division level, then those on the streets have only one motive which is to be ruthless in their extortion economy. This is the present-day character of the Nigerian society where everyone in imbalance power relations to another, exploits one another. Poor funding has exposed officers to generate funds to run police car and offices,” the don told Saturday Tribune.
“What about their training? How can you have a police training college that does not treat officers as human beings and we expect those trained to come out of there and not behave like animals? It is impossible. A nation that cares less about the welfare of its staff, students and citizenry cannot but experience this callous occurrence. There are also those of them who are drunk while on duty. They act under the influence of liquor.”
He also has a word for Lagos residents: “On the flip side, Nigerians must learn to respect the man holding a gun. Treat them with courtesy and expect that you are the only one sensible in the interaction. Do not disrespect them or talk down on them. They face the same frustration as others or even more. This frustration may be transferred and this may result in fatalities as we recorded in Lagos.”
His conclusion isn’t comforting.
“Unfortunately, there is no immediate solution to this occurrence. After we shout and mourn for some days, we will forget and within some weeks another may happen. We are an unserious nation. A nation that does not have civil weapons for civil cases can only be reproducing those late Fela Kuti calls ‘animal in human skin.’ We cannot afford this situation of snuffing life out of people for unjust course. There must be compensation and justice for victims’ families. Nigeria continues to be like this because there is injustice everywhere. Just like removing ‘force’ from Nigeria Police has not stopped the use of naked force, only reactive measure can take place. It is more important to educate the populace on behaviour when in contact with men in uniform than thinking there will be immediate solution to this trigger-happy cops phenomenon. It is unfortunate that the bad eggs in police are misrepresenting the brilliant and gallant officers in the Nigeria Police.”
Enough is enough –IG
The Inspector General of Police, Muhammed Adamu, during his official visit to officers of the Lagos State police command, spoke the minds of millions of Nigerians when he declared “enough is enough.”
He said, “From January to April 2019, Lagos State has recorded four incidents of misuse of firearms, which have resulted in extrajudicial killings of young citizens of the country and injury to others. More worrisome is that two of those incidents, occurred within the last two weeks. I must emphasise that enough is enough. The nation and indeed the police under the current leadership can no longer tolerate abuse associated with police either in Lagos or in any other part of the country. I have ordered that a signal be circulated to all police commands and formations, warning of the dire consequence against any personnel that by their incorrigible acts deviate from accepted police culture and values.”
Why our men misbehave –Senior officers
A senior police officer in the state command didn’t completely share the IG’s outright condemnation, though he wasn’t absolving his murderous colleagues. He said on the condition of anonymity that “almost all of those cases are impulsive. The erring policemen did not prepare for such. It just came to their mind to shoot and they quickly did that within a minute. It has to do with the character and sense of judgment of such officers.”
He added: “In some cases, it was as a result of indiscipline on the part of the policemen. Some of them are under the influence of harmful drugs and alcohol. And these really affect their sense of judgment. They quickly resort to use of firearms instead of using other means of solving problems”.
Another senior police officer who also spoke to Saturday Tribune anonymously said; “One thing from all cases of the abuse of firearms is that they happened during illegal operations. The policemen, in their desperation to make money, use their guns to scare their victims.”
Residents of the state have, however, remained cautious and indifferent to police operations. In fact, residents of many parts of the state claimed they have become unusually afraid of the sight of gun-bearing policemen.
A member of the state House of Assembly, Segun Olulade, also raised the alarm on the rising number of deaths from misuse of firearms by police operatives. “We are having too much of extrajudicial killings. I would say that the Nigerian Police needs to do a lot in this respect. There is no discipline in our police force,” the lawmaker said.
Hit list
Just in the last three months, the state police command recorded no fewer than four cases of misuse of firearms leading to loss of lives. Kolade Johnson, a resident of Mangoro area of Ikeja was on 31 of March killed by police operatives from the Anti-Cultism Unit of the state police command. Although Kolade was not the target of the policeman, later identified as Inspector Olalekan Ogunyemi, who led the policemen to the scene, Saturday Tribune investigations gathered that the policeman had no reason to use firearm on anybody at the scene of the incident. The lives of the policemen were not in danger and there was no need to use shoot at anybody.
The dust raised by the circumstances surrounding the death of Kolade Johnson was yet to settle when a six-man police team from Trinity Police Station in the Ajegunle area of the state killed a 20-year-old lady, Ada Ifeanyi, while her friend, Emmanuel Akomafuwa, sustained serious gun wounds.
Saturday Tribune learnt that the duo of Ada and Emmanuel were returning home last Saturday morning from a club when the policemen tried to stop them. Emmanuel, who drove the vehicle, reportedly sped off to the chagrin of the policemen who allegedly gave them a hot chase up to Emmanuel’s home at Akpiri Street, Olodi Apapa before opening fire on the two occupants of the car. Ada got hit in the stomach and died immediately, while Emmanuel sustained bullet wounds. His current state could not be ascertained.
A roadside food vendor, Kudirat Adebayo, was two years ago killed by policemen who were hunting for an alleged internet fraudster, popularly known as “Yahoo boys” in the Onipanu area of the state. Some residents of the area had resisted the attempt by the policemen to arrest the accused fraudster when a policeman shot to disperse the angry crowd but Kudirat, who was sitting by the roadside, was hit by stray bullets.
Desperation to make quick money from suspected internet fraudsters has also been blamed for misuse of firearms by policemen. Policemen reportedly collect huge sums of money from suspected internet fraudsters after going through their phones. In recent time, policemen now go all out for alleged cult members and internet fraudsters, identifying them mainly by their hair styles. Those who wear tight-fitting dresses and dreadlocks are promptly deemed to be criminals. With such arbitrariness, many do not see an immediate end to the extrajudicial killings in the state and the loud silence from the seat of government in Alausa is also not helping matters.
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