The killing of a woman in Abuja on Monday by a policeman attached to the Mpape branch of Zenith Bank Plc once again underscored the highhandedness and insensitive nature of some members of the Nigeria Police Force.
Although the trigger-happy policeman narrowly escaped the lynching of the mob who gathered to vent their annoyance on him for his action, the bank pitiably bore the brunt in a big proportion.
One version of the stories was that a taxi driver made a U-turn in front of the bank despite warning from the policeman not to do so. Another stated that he tried to allow a nursing mother alight in front of the bank. There is another report that the policeman got infuriated because the driver allegedly attempted to pick up a passenger in front of the bank building.
But the bottom line of them all is that he shot dead the driver and a female passenger said to be pregnant. As usual, untenable theories were being formulated for his dastardly act. Imagine the lame reason that he never meant to shoot but only banged the gun on the vehicle and in the process, the trigger pulled.
This is not the first time members of the country’s police will be sending irritating signals to the citizens that their lives are everything to them but invaluable. They are so brazen in the act of terrorising the people they are supposed to protect with the guns bought for them with the people’s taxes.
The truth is that many Nigerians don’t see the Nigerian Police as their friend. If anything, they see them as monsters which they have no option than to live with. There is always a defence that members of the Force are recruited from the society anytime their inadequacies come under discourse.
But one needs to tell the apostles of such illogicality that if the society had worsened the recruits before their absorption into the Force, they ultimately turned devils thereafter. Is there no way the establishment can give them a human face?
The truth is that many of them are self-conceited and believe so much in the power of the guns they brandish. It is a fact that only an insane person will argue with a man with the gun, but the man wielding the gun should be cautious not to overstretch the patience of his victim.
It was clear that the Abuja killer cop got the message that the people are angry hence he fled for dear life. The irony of the whole thing is that he took the life of others but feared to lose his own.
In fact, the reported declaration of the Commissioner of Police FCT Command, Mr. John Haruna that ‘‘Nigeria Police Force does not condone attacks on innocent citizens in any manner by any of its men’’, sounds novel to many.
It may interest him to know that a policeman with the Lagos State Police Command was accused of killing a man at Onipanu area in Lagos last year. He did it right in front of Onipanu Police Station with flagrant impunity.
Before then, a secondary school girl, Oluwatosin Adelugba, was shot in a moving vehicle by a policeman at Iju Water Works in Ifako-Ijaiye area of the state in 2002. Her offence was that she was hapless to have boarded a commercial vehicle whose driver refused to part with N20 (that was the amount before they ‘‘re-capitalised’’ with N50) some policemen were demanding from each of the drivers.
The lifeless body of the teenager which was brought to the premises of the Lagos State television by the protesters on their way to the state secretariat made passers-by to rain curses on the killer.
The then Inspector General of Police, Mr. Tafa Balogun, who was moved by the action instantly ordered the dismissal of any policeman who misuses firearms by killing innocent citizens. Besides, he added that such officer would be prosecuted for murder.
Also, the Ikeja, Lagos Branch of the Nigerian Bar Association berated the killing of Miss Adelugba by the policeman.
The NBA made its stand known in a statement issued by its then Chairman, Bisi Ade-Ademuwagun and the Publicity Secretary, Dave Ayetumobi.
It noted “Enough is enough of this sad happening in our midst.
“We hereby state without leaving anyone in doubt that as an association and watchdog of the defenceless Nigerians, we shall not let any stone unturned. This is not a case where the culprit will simply be punished departmentally by a mere dismissal. He (Police Sergeant) should be made to undergo criminal prosecution for this murder. It is one murder too many.’’
One cannot agree less that it is a murder too many. Like William Shakespeare’s says ‘‘As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport,’’ so the policemen kill defenceless Nigerians for fun.
In 2007, a young man was mowed down in Egbeda area of Lagos State. The man was coming from a football field where he had gone to drop some soccer-loving boys in his area who begged him to take them there.’’
It was a sanitation day and on sighting some policemen afar, he was said to have decided to take another route to escape their trouble. But one of them felt he knew the job better. He chased the Jeep which the man was driving with a motorcycle and shot at it as it made to negotiate a corner. The driver never survived it, only the occupant at the front seat did. He died leaving everything behind including his wife.
Last year, a bus driver was killed at Vulcaniser Bust Stop in the same area by a police officer after an argument over demand of a N50 bribe by the latter. The protest generated by the development was so much that the state Police command had to deploy officers to ensure peace in the area.
A school of thought reasoned that if any of the killer cops had paid dearly for his action, others will be careful in threatening the masses with guns. The rate at which they kill Nigerians under all manner of pretences like accidental discharge also calls for serious appraisal.
The most provocative part of the whole issue is that some police officers have built a myth around themselves that they possess nocturnal powers. At night, nobody dares take them to task on anything. They do the talking, even though it is usually devoid of logic, and one is expected to do the listening.
Every degenerated establishment needs an overhaul; it may, however, not be too late for the Nigeria Police Force to embark on its own in the spirit of national rebirth.
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