Has Police Brutality Replaced Boko Haram Terrorism In Nigeria?

ZION B-BC NEWSLETTER. A Publication of the Zion Faith Bible-Believing Church, Kpeyegyi, Abuja Nigeria. [VOL. 4. NO 124. 27 December, 2015.} “… ONLY The Truth, Will Set You Free! (John.8:32).
( CHRISTMAS EDITION ).

HAS POLICE BRUTALITY REPLACED BOKO HARAM TERRORISM IN NIGERIA?

Should the security challenges of burglary, armed robbery, kidnapping, mass shooting and dastard killings which the down-trodden citizens of Nigeria are confront ed with on daily basis be further aggravate d with the additional brut ality unleashed upon them by the bad cops among members of the rank and file of the Nigeria Police Force? President Buhari in his 2016 Budget presentation assured that Bok o Haram terrorists were bei n g tactically defeated and pushed out of the Nige rian territories and also disclosed that N10billion had been set aside to fight the rebellion in the coming year but this optimism for a peaceful nation is totally opposed to the kind of mercile s s police brutality being unleashed on the poor masses especially in suburbs where COMMUNITY POLICING propaganda was being vigorously canvassed!

The only plausible explanation for the continuous act of treason and back-stabbing against the people, the tax-payers, and the electorate, who pay policemen salaries and allowances and also whose monies were used to purchase the guns with which they are now being daily threatened with , is that those criminals in uniform have the succinct and tacit support of their management team! Eighteen indigenous Inspector s General of Police (IGP), have been appointed in the 55 years of Nigeria as a nation and it is so sad to note that the afore-mentioned kind of insane brutality against the masses had increased by leaps and bounds with every IGP instead of abating! Would it be far-fetched if we conclude that, “BRUTALITY AGAINST DEFENCELESS NIGERIANS ” is a permanent item of successive hand-over notes? Recently in one of the satellite communities of the Federal Capital Territory, an unmarked saloon car which later turned out to have conveyed one member of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), trailed a popular beef meat-seller to his stall and confronted him with an handcuffed man with whom they claimed he contracted an unholy business deal but before the frightened meat seller who was intimidated with AK 47 Assault Rifles could deny their claim, he was slapped, kicked and butted severally with the guns in the presence of a motley crowd which stood helplessly watching Police brutality in action in broad daylight about 02.30pm of a Wednesday afternoon! He was eventually taken away in the unmarked vehicle, driven round and round until a forced bribe of the sum ten thousand nai ra exchanged hands for his release to be effected at about 10pm of the day in question with bruises and swollen face to show for his encounter with the bad cops of the Nigeria Police Force ! He was lucky to be alive! This is one isolated case of Police brutality which has over the years assumed the dimension of New York’s crime statistics which claim ed that in every 30 seconds, one person was either being mugged, raped or killed in the city! Amnesty International Reports were never acceptable to Nigerian Governments, past or present because of their down-to-earth truthful, factual and non-biased revelations in respect of high profile crimes and criminalities involving men and officers of institutions and agencies that should constitutionally protect the citizens but brutalized them instead with brazen audacity and impunity and in majority of cases went scot-free! In spite of its neutrality and painstaking methods of sourcing information backed by undisputable evidences of documentary videos, photographs, audio recordings etc.; government authorities involved always referred to such reports as blatant fabrications and figments of the imagination of the very respectable international agency !

About seven months before the appointment of the incumbent Nigeria’s Inspector General of Police Amnesty International published a report aptly titled: “Welcome to Hell Fir e: Torture and Other Ill -Treatment in Nigeria”; in which sordid practice of torture to extract confessions as punishment for alleged crimes was exposed and horrors of atrocities of inhumanity perpetrated in Police Stations like shooting in the leg, foot or hand; extracting teeth, fingernails or toe nails, water torture and rape; and descri bed a scenario that, “security forces enjoy a climate of impunity”! The Police image maker wasted no time in an official statement to dismiss the very authentic report and took a swipe and “serious exception to the blatant falsehoods and innuendos” contained in the authentic report which 99.9 per cent of Nigerians [ except the Police ] , would vouchsafe as truth and nothing but the truth! In an official statement the officer said: “ The police force has significantly improved on its human rights records in the years since military rule ended in 1999 owing largely to training and re-training, community policing, attitudinal change and structural transformation.” This statement no doubt is an indirect admission that the police always had very bad human rights records! In the past Amnesty International had reported incidents of extra-judicial killing of suspected criminals , like the one that incensed the present Boko Haram terrorists wh o claimed that their former leader Mohammed Yusuf was extra-judicially murdered by members of the Police Mobile Force ; there were also issues of the killings of armed robbery suspects often conducted to decongest prison cells which were reported in the past but to which successive administrations treated with kid glove s and continuous denials which we re very glaring to majority of Nigerians! The question that should agitate the incumbent IGP who has less than six months to retirement should be the kind of legacy he would bequeath to the up- coming generations of police officer s and to posterity ? He cannot claim ignorance to the bad image which the force had been condemned to since independence neither would he pretend that the Amnesty International regular reports were always orchestrated! Coping gingerly and meticulousl y with the trending and disturbing issues of serious internal security challenges of crimes and criminalities seven months into the Change Administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, Solomon Ehigiato Arase is no doubt a very lucky Inspector General of Police to have remained in the saddle in spite of being an appointee of a past administration ! While other Service Chiefs chanted , “ ther e was a casting down” Solomon, who was the last man standing among the inherited uniformed men, chorused the more acceptable refrain, “there was a lifting up! ”

In previous administrations – democracy, military or diarchy – service chiefs like cabinet ministers and advisers were usually swept into the labour market or compulsorily retire d following a change of guards but on 29 May 2015, an exception was made by the new government which retained all the regimented Armed Forces H eads for its first three months in office before showing them the exit door! Solomo n Arase (59) from Edo State , was appointed by former Pres ident Jonathan o n 21st April , 2015, towards the very tail end of the failed Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government , as the 18 th Inspector Gene ral of Police to replace Suleiman Abba, who was the third in the line three consecutive IGPs from Jigawa State, the other two being: Afiz Ringim and Mohammed D. Abubakar ! This very lucky IGP enlisted into the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), in 1981 and had served in various departments of the Force including Operations, Investigation, Administration, and Intelligence and as the time to bow out is closing in would he turn a deaf ear to the yearnings of all Nigerians that it was high time all BAD COPS were fished out , investigate d , prosecuted and sent to prison or the gallows as the case might be? Would Solomon Arase who had been a very distinguished police offi cer all of his carrier allow those kind of SARS policemen mentioned earlier and other members of their ilk at the various police stations in the 36 State Police Commands and the FCT, tarnish his reputation which has been built over the years? It was widely reported that the police boss reacted administratively to a September 2015 extra-judicial killing of a mother of four in Lagos through the dismissal and an ongoing prosecution of the suspect, a police corporal who is in the centre of the storm but what about other numerous cases which he inherited since his assumption of office and which have been swept un der the carpet? If fine officers are restricted to the Superior Police Officers (SPOs), cadre, how would Nigeria solve its internal criminal cases which are increasing by the day since the bulk of the force’s p ersonnel is made up of the rank and file who make up the back bone for operational duties? It is not too late for Solomon Arase to fish out all such cases of extra judicial killings, brutal extortion s and rape incidents which are still pending and ensure that they were prosecuted to logical conclusions before his exit! We also recommend that the Amnesty International Report which police authorities dismissed with a wave of the hand must be dusted up and an Investigation and Implement ation Committee set up to painstakingly review all the suggestions contained therein and make concrete recommendations that would be implemented without further delay.

The Change mantra to remove gross indiscipline among the rank and file of the NPF should begin with the policemen who are constitutionally saddled with all challenges of internal and domestic a ffairs of the country and henceforth, beginning with recruitment, only men and women of impeccable character and proven integrity should be recruited with at least educational Diploma and Graduate certificates in relevant courses to fill existing vacancies which are intended to give the much-needed facelift that would endear the agency to be come a true friend of Nigerians I n his Christmas message Mr. President says: “We must never again allow any group to hold the nation to ransom under whatever guise. Let us also not allow current socio-economic and security challenges to dampen our expectations for a better Nigeria.” THE BAD COPS OF THE NIGERIA POLICE FORCE MUST BE ROUTED AND ANNIHILATED. THEY CANNOT HOLD NIGERIA TO RANSOM IN ORDER TO AVOID CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE AND UNREST WHICH COULD RESULT FROM INACTION BY THE RELEVANT AUTHORITIES ! We will also advise that patriotic Nigerians, Civil Society Organisations (CSO’s), Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO’s), should rise in unison and destroy this monster of impunity among the bad cops by reporting all such cases of police brutality directly to the Inspector General of Police and by extension to Mr President for executive fiat on such matters of utmost urgency! It is written, “ Every plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up.” (Matthew. 15:13).

Please look forward to more divine revelation in the next edition of Zion B-BC Newsletter as you share this with friends and remain blessed in the Lord.

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If you have not accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour, don’t miss this great opportunity as you pray this prayer: Lord Jesus; I confess that I am a sinner who needs to be saved through the grace of the New Testament of your Blood, shed on the Cross at Calvary; I renounce every sin in my life and accept you as my Lord and Saviour. Please forgive me and write my name in the Book of Life. Amen. If you prayed this prayer, you have been admitted into the family of sons and daughters of God, who are born-again. Congratulations. I am, yours sincerely, Dr. David B.A. Olufon, Resident Pastor and Editor. 08130669886, 08098194390. g-mail- dvdolufon@gmail.com .