That Customs killing

CITIZEN Godwin Onoja is the umpteenth victim of the utter disrespect for human life that has become all too typical of the various arms of law enforcement in the country. He was killed on Sunday 17 February at a Customs checkpoint on the Lagos-Benin Road by a yet to be identified Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) officer. Mr. Onoja was fatally shot in the course of a heated argument between Customs officers at the checkpoint and passengers of the vehicle in which the deceased had been traveling. Various media reports confirm that the cause of the argument was the passengers’ refusal to pay a bribe of N5,000 demanded by the Customs officials in order to let their vehicle through the Customs checkpoint.

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In an amateur video recording of the tragic incident which immediately went viral and provoked wide condemnation, another officer’s voice is heard urging the officer who eventually pulled the trigger to “Shoot him.” Having killed Mr. Onoja, the same Customs officer and his colleagues attempted to take his body away in their vehicle but were prevented from doing so by outcry from Mr. Onoja’s co-passengers.

Daily interactions between ordinary citizens and law enforcement in Nigeria is historically fraught, with statistics on extra-judicial killings among the highest in the world. The majority of these, like Mr. Onoja’s, are avoidable, and their recurrence is a clear signal that we are a long way from becoming a civilised society. For instance, in which other society for which civility and the rule of law are fundamental is a simple altercation at a checkpoint allowed to regularly escalate into an occasion for a brutal killing? In any case, when did Customs officials, charged with monitoring the import and export of goods into and out of the country, assume the duties of the police by setting up checkpoints? Why is it that, despite all our rhetoric about communal solidary, incidents like the killing of Mr. Onoja are never punished? Why is life so cheap in Nigeria?

In an official statement, Mr. Joseph Attah, the Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the NCS, sought to deny the evidence in the video. According to Mr. Attah, “Contrary to some narratives, the young man was not a passenger of the bus but a good citizen who always come (sic) to fetch water for Customs patrol men anytime they return to the base.”If the Customs Service treats “good citizens” this way, how would it treat “bad” ones? In the same statement, the Customs PRO maintained that “preliminary finding indicate (sic) that it was during the skirmishes (sic) and struggle with the passengers to disarm the officer that the riffle (sic) discharged and hit the friend of the Customs (Godwin) who lost his life.” This claim does not stand up to scrutiny, as there is no indication from the video that any of the passengers, least of all the deceased, was trying to disarm the Customs officials.

Mr.Attah’s statement concluded with an assurance that “the patrol team has been recalled to the office for further investigation.” For any close observer of the Nigerian milieu accustomed to myriad investigations that have gone nowhere, this cannot inspire any confidence. Rather, there is a sinking feeling that yet again, law enforcement in the country, in this case Customs officials operating a technically illegal checkpoint, have once more gotten away with murder.

We hope we are proven wrong.