In 2000, a Professor of Criminology and Sociology, Etannibi Alemika, and
the West African Regional Director of Ford Foundation, Innocent
Chukwuma, carried out a research on ‘police-community violence in
Nigeria.’ They analysed the structural and institutional causes of
violence by the police against citizens and violence by the citizens
against the police in the country.
Their publication proposed a
framework for an effective, civil and accountable police force that
would advance democratic governance and respect for human rights. They
also suggested a framework for effective involvement of the civil
society in controlling and determining the direction and priority of
policing in the country.
According to the publication, police
violence in the form of summary executions occurred frequently among
special task forces assigned to patrol highways and cities to curb armed
robbery.
“Police torture in the form of physical assault
frequently occurs at all levels of police work – crowd control, arrest,
investigation and detention. The use of violence by the police against
the citizens has been recognised as a widespread and persistent problem
in the country by the government, the public and even the police
authority,” the report noted.
Among other reasons, the
research attributed police misconduct to a lack of accountability by the
political leaders, which encourages lawlessness by government agents
and the police to act beyond the law; and an inequitable economic
system, which breeds socio-economic conflicts that threaten the
interests of the rulers and require the deployment of the police by
economic and political power-holders for the suppression of some
segments of society.
It argued that poor training of police
personnel often misled to misuse of arms and ammunition against
citizens, noting that inadequate supervision of junior police personnel
encourages brutality towards citizens. The report also blamed stress and
frustration by police officers in response to high crime rates, poor
conditions of service, a dearth of crime control facilities, and poor
screening of police recruits leading to the recruitment of
psychologically and socially unstable persons into the police force,
“who are prone to violence in the course of law enforcement.”
However,
20 years after the forensic diagnosis of the police misdemeanours, not
much has been done to address the problems, which have grown into
pandemic proportions. Successive governments and police administrations
have failed to implement the necessary reforms that can tackle police
violence against the citizens, who they are paid to protect. Analysts
say the rash of hostile police actions against Nigerians should give the
government and the police leadership a cause for concern.
The
National Human Rights Commission in April reported that police
personnel carried out 18 extra-judicial killings between March 30 and
April 13, 2020. The Executive Secretary of the commission, Tony Ojukwu,
expressed concern over the development, noting that the death toll from
police killings exceeded that of COVID-19.
“While the new
coronavirus has killed 11 patients, security forces have
extra-judicially executed 18 people to enforce the orders,” he said,
adding that the killings were carried out by the policemen enforcing the
COVID-19 restriction order of the Federal Government.
Ojukwu
also disclosed that the commission received 105 complaints about human
rights violations during the period. The cases were recorded in 24 out
of the 36 states, including Lagos, Ogun and Abuja.
Apart from
physical violence, some operatives have also been accused of sexual
molestation and abuse. Last week, a widow accused a police officer
identified as Peter Ebah, attached to the Saakpenwaa Police Division in
the Tai Local Government Area of Rivers State of detaining and raping
her at a guest house after she was arrested for not wearing a face mask.
The
mother of two disclosed that she was taken away from a bus she was
travelling in from Bori, Khana Local Government Area of the state, to
Port Harcourt around 6.30pm and raped by Ebah after he threatened her. A
report said the culprit had been ‘summoned’ by the state Commissioner
of Police.
Before the widow’s ordeal, a lady identified as
Towobola was seen in a viral video being mocked and sexually intimidated
by a policeman in Ibadan. “Where is the guy that deflowered you? He
doesn’t have money right? The officer said degradingly. The police
authorities said four policemen had been arrested in connection with the
incident.
In May, a 27-year-old 500-level Law student of the
Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Augustine Ugwu, was murdered by an
officer of the Nigeria Police Force at Nsukka. The deceased was said to
have gone to a pub at Odobido with his friend from where he was arrested
by a local security outfit and handed over to the officer in charge of
the Anti-cult squad in Nsukka, Ferdinand Ochi, who allegedly murdered
him over an undisclosed issue.
In February, a footballer with
Remo Stars Football Club, Tiamiyu Kazeem, died after he was allegedly
pushed by a policeman into the path of an oncoming vehicle. The incident
sparked angry protests in Sagamu, Ogun State.
Last December, a
mechanic, Chima Ikwunado, was tortured to death by some policemen in
Rivers State. The deceased was arrested alongside four of his friends in
the Ikokwu area of Port Harcourt and accused of being robbers. Ikwunado
died after he was reportedly tortured by the cops. The police disclosed
that four officers linked to the incident had been dismissed and might
be prosecuted.
In September 2019, police officers killed two
students of the Federal University, Oye Ekiti, who were protesting poor
electricity supply in the town at an event attended by the wife of the
governor of Ekiti State, Bisi Fayemi. The deceased are Oluwaseyi
Kehinde, a 100-level student of Crop Science and Horticulture, and
Joseph Okonofua, a 300-level student of Biology Education.
Many
students were also injured in the fracas. Footage of the incident showed
armed policemen hunting the students like rabbits in a carrot farm.
Nothing was heard from the police authorities about the murderous action
of the thugs in uniform. There have also been many unreported cases of
police assault, corruption and killings across the country.
In a
report, ‘Time to End Impunity’, released in June, Amnesty International
documented at least 82 cases of torture, ill-treatment and
extra-judicial execution by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad between
January 2017 and May 2020. It said the victims were predominantly male
between the ages of 18 and 35, from low-income backgrounds and
vulnerable groups.
The organisation noted that the Nigerian
authorities had failed to prosecute a single officer from the SARS
despite anti-torture legislation passed in 2017 and “evidence that its
members continue to use torture and other ill-treatment to execute,
punish and extract information from suspects.”
The AI said its
investigation revealed a disturbing pattern of abuse of detainees in
SARS custody despite the Anti-Torture Act. In many cases, the AI said it
bore witness to the scars, bruises and dried blood on victims’ bodies,
adding that many of them were subjected to beating with sticks and
machetes, and denied medical care.
It noted, “Despite repeated
promises by successive governments to reform the Nigeria Police Force
and the immediate overhauling of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad
announced by the Inspector-General of Police on August 14, 2018, gross
human right violations, inefficiency and disregard for human rights
remain widespread within the force.”
Commenting on the situation,
Director of Amnesty International Nigeria, Osai Ojigho, said, “The
complete failure of Nigerian authorities to bring an end to the gross
human rights violations perpetrated by the SARS or to bring any SARS
officer to justice is shocking and unacceptable. Nigerians are outraged
by the systemic human rights violations perpetrated by the SARS with
impunity.
“The systemic use of torture and other ill-treatment
by SARS officers for police investigations and the continued existence
of torture chambers within the Nigeria Police Force point to an absolute
disregard for international human rights laws and standards.”
The
Executive Director, United Global Resolve for Peace, Shalom Olaseni,
called for an effective oversight by the Police Service Commission to
check, regulate and discipline errant police officers.
“We need a
police force that is accountable to us; only then can police brutality
and rights violation be curbed completely,” the activist noted.
In
his own view, a lawyer and former military officer, Johnson Oyewole,
said discipline, adequate training and respect for human rights were the
missing ideals in the nation’s policing system.
He noted,
“Section 34 of the 1999 Constitution stated thus, ‘Every individual is
entitled to respect for the dignity of his person and accordingly, no
person shall be subjected to torture or degrading treatment’. So, if the
police can respect the constitution, there will be no crisis between
the police and the citizens, because no law permitted the police to
torture or brutalise a citizen.”
The Convener, Concerned
Nigerians, Deji Adeyanju, called for institutional reforms to curb
police violence on citizens, noting that the recruitment process should
be more stringent and transparent. According to him, the current system
ensures that only the “scum of the society” joins the force due to
unemployment.
“I believe the human rights desk in the police is
weak; I think the human rights officer in the police should always go
out with the operatives on operation. We need to institute the necessary
institutional framework to address the problem, because we have been
discussing the issue of police brutality for over 20 years and we keep
repeating the same thing,” he stated.
But the Police Service
Commission said it was carrying out effective oversight on the police,
noting that many officers had been dismissed or demoted for misconduct. A
senior official explained that the commission had sacked over 12 senior
police officers and demoted eight others for misconduct in the line of
duty this year.
Those dismissed include one Superintendent of
Police, five Deputy Superintendents of Police and four Assistant
Superintendents of Police. The PSC also demoted a Deputy Commissioner of
Police, a Chief Superintendent of Police, four SPs, one DSP and ASP for
various infractions. At its last plenary meeting in June, the
commission said it looked into 83 disciplinary cases, which included 18
appeals and petitions.
However, a former United States Ambassador
to Nigeria, Dr John Campbell, observed that the Nigeria Police had lost
public confidence due to the deteriorating security conditions
nationwide, widespread corruption among its officers and overreliance on
the armed forces to ensure public order.
Campbell, currently a
senior fellow at the Council for Foreign Relations, also observed that
these compelling considerations had invigorated the agitation for the
decentralisation of federal policing powers, thus leading to the
creation of regional security architecture such as Amotekun.
In a
research analysis published on the website of the CFR on July 14, the
former ambassador supported the decentralisation of the police force,
stating that “the states could impose greater accountability on the
police than the Federal Government.”
Source: The PUNCH
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