The Network on Police Reform in Nigeria (NOPRIN) has said that it has documented no less than 15 cases of police killings across the country from reckless abuse of firearms between November 2018 and April 2019.
The National Coordinator of the NOPRIN, Mr. Okechukwu Nwanguma who disclosed this in a welcome address he delivered at the Opening Ceremony of the Public Tribunal on Police Brutality, Corruption and Abuse organised by NOPRIN Foundation and TrustAfrica in Owerri, the Imo State Capital on Tuesday recalled that Nigerians woke up on Sunday April 14, 2019 to the tragic news of two more casualties of police brutality in Lagos in one day.
According to Nwanguma,”That brought to no less than six, in less than one month alone, the number of cases of citizens killed in Lagos by trigger happy police officers through reckless and inexplicable misuse of firearms”.
He also recalled that in 2018, two young women were killed in Abuja, one, just a day to her passing out from the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) even as he added that within two weeks after the tragic killing of young Kolade Johnson on March 31 by a member of a police team from the notorious Anti Cultism Unit of the Lagos State Police Command, and that while the outrage that greeted that killing was yet to subside, another policeman under the same Lagos State Police Command again shot a young man and his young female partner, Adaobi Ojide, instantly killing the young woman.
“The police authorities in Lagos said the policeman who committed this heinous crime escaped and has been declared wanted by the command while his colleagues were arrested and subjected to internal disciplinary procedure, dismissed and handed over for prosecution for murder”, he explained.
The National Coordinator stated that it was expected that the return to democratic processes in the country in 1999 and the reform measures undertaken would curb police brutality but police killings remain widespread which according to him called for urgent and far reaching measures to end them.
He continued, “The killings, particularly by SARS, assumed a disturbing frequency under the immediate past IGP Kpotun Idris who did nothing to address them prompting the emergence of the #EndSARS movement led by Segun Awosanya. Instead of addressing widespread police abuses which prompted the popular campaign to disband the notorious SARS, the police under Idris justified the excesses of the police accusing those campaigning for the disbanding of SARS as people harbouring criminal intents. The Presidency responded to the EndSARS agitation by ordering the then IGP to reform SARS and the NHRC to conduct Public Hearings on SARS atrocities.
“It is worrisome that despite these official responses and the huge investments of resources, time and energy by civil society, government and international development partners and foreign governments, police reform efforts have yielded no significant improvement. On the part of government, there seems to be more rhetoric than concrete action. Even when government sets up police reform committees, the reports and the far reaching recommendations of the committees are never wholeheartedly implemented”.
He revealed that seven years ago, on 13 February 2012, while addressing Assistant Police commissioners in charge of command operations and criminal investigation departments at a conference in Abuja, former Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Dahiru Abubakar lamented what he described as ‘unprofessional conduct of men and officers’ while admitting that corruption and abuse were rife in the police denting the image of the police and widening the trust gap between the police and the citizens.
He further noted that it would seem that almost every former IGPs, upon assuming office in acting capacity, adopts such no-nonsense posture, talking tough and promising reforms but down the line, as they settle in, things return to business as usual even as he recalled that the current IGP also made similar tough statements in his inaugural speech and announced measures.
“I must however admit that the response by the current IGP Mohammed Adamu to the spate of killings is a departure from the incompetent and compromised tenure of his predecessor. IGP Adamu has demonstrated leadership by the efforts he is making. The steps he has taken so far are different, positive and welcome. His visit to Lagos following the latest killing in the state demonstrates empathy and his decision to hold DPO’s and Area Commanders responsible for any further infractions shows seriousness to deal with police killings. He deserves our support.
“His decision to hold Area Commanders and DPO’s responsible for any further infractions will awaken them to their responsibility to monitor and supervise officers under them to ensure that they behave in professional ways. They will now take responsibility for failure to supervise and enforce discipline among the junior ranks”, he stated.
Nwanguma however identified the need for a far-reaching and sustainable solution to police brutality, abuse and corruption adding that the Nigerian Police Force was governed by a colonial law, which had seen no comprehensive review since its initial promulgation in 1943.
“Since 2004, several efforts have been undertaken to review the Police Act to provide a legal framework for the on-going reform initiatives. The review started in November 2004 and was undertaken by an interagency committee comprised of police, government and civil society representatives. It involved several stages of public consultation and a legal audit of all the laws engaging the police. A draft bill was discussed and approved by the interagency committee before it was finally presented to the House of Representatives towards the end of 2005. Between 2005 and 2018, many other drafts were presented to both chambers of the National Assembly.
“On April 17, the Senate eventually passed the Police Reform Bill. The passage of the Bill by the House of Representatives and its assent by the President have become more urgent than ever before to provide a legal framework to regulate the police in modern democracy.
“The rampant incidents of police killing, including the cases that would form the subject of testimonies at this public hearing today make the passage of and a Presidential assent to the Police Bill even more urgent”, he added.
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