Kolade Johnson: NOPRIN seeks end to excesses of Anti-Cultism Unit

…Wants perpetrators brought to account, Unit sanitized

The Network on Police Reform in Nigeria (NOPRIN) has called on the Commissioner of Police, Lagos State, CP Zubairu Muazu to use the opportunity presented by the killing of Kolade Johnson to comprehensively investigate the activities of the Anti-Cultism unit of the command with a view to ensuring that necessary measures are taken to reorganise the unit, fish out and flush the bad eggs as well as bring the operations and conducts of personnel of the unit within the boundaries of law, civility, accountability and respect for the human rights.

The National Coordinator of the network, Mr. Okechukwu Nwanguma who made this call in a petition he addressed to the Lagos State Commissioner of Police on Tuesday and made available to newsmen equally urged the command to demonstrate that it would no longer tolerate flagrant abuses, misconduct and embarrassing activities by police officers attached to this notorious, or any other, unit.

Nwanguma posited that it was not enough to subject the culprits to internal disciplinary procedures only stating that the officers found to be responsible for this killing must be charged to court after they have been subjected to internal disciplinary procedures.

While condemning the killing as reckless, unprovoked and unjustifiable, the NOPRIN boss further described the killing of Kolade Johnson as the height of the atrocities committed daily by personnel of that unit and the seeming atmosphere of impunity that emboldened them to continue to engage in criminal activities and flagrant violation of the rights of citizens, particularly young people in Lagos.

He said,” While cultism is a real problem in Lagos State that needs to be seriously tackled, the operatives of the Anti-Cultism Unit established to tackle this menace have over time found it convenient to hide under the pretext of clamping down on alleged cultists to harass, intimidate and extort money from innocent young people.

“In the pretense of fighting cultism, they embark on routine raids leading to mass arrest of innocent young people sometimes after actual cult violence has taken place and the real ‘criminals’ dispersed. The scene of such an incident becomes a fertile ground for mass arrest and detention of innocent people with the sheer objective of extorting money from the victims. “In some cases, those who can’t afford money for bail are maliciously charged to court with false cultism charges. One of the unit’s commonest grounds for adjudging young people as cultists is their hair style, tattoos and sundry other ridiculous considerations”.

He noted that the operation that led to the killing of Kolade Johnson was typical and characteristic of the unethical mode of operations of the Anti-Cult Unit adding that as in previous cases, they were reported to have operated in an unmarked commercial bus when they went to the area on that Sunday afternoon in search of youths who ‘dressed wildly’ and ‘wearing dreadlocks.’

He continued,” One of the witnesses was quoted by reports to have said that he and some others who were drinking at a bar saw what was happening and quickly explained to the policemen that the young man they were trying to arrest was not a ‘Yahoo’ boy. The operatives ignored them and kept dragging the boy to their vehicle. They shot in an attempt to disperse the crowd and the bullet hit Kolade from behind. He died on the way to the hospital at Ikeja.

“NOPRIN has documented and intervened in some cases involving the Anti-Cult Unit which follow a similar pattern as described above. They frequently carry out illegal stop and search operations which target mainly young people who are profiled, harassed and subjected to illegal and intrusive bodily searches- including unauthorised search on their personal items- phones, wallets, laptop and laptop bags, etc., based on unfounded allegations that they are ‘Yahoo boys’, cultists, kidnappers, prostitutes, etc.

“We have also documented cases of what appear more like abduction of people by police officers. When police officers fail to identify or introduce themselves as police officers and simply order people into their vehicles, how do you then distinguish police officers from kidnappers or armed robbers?”

The National Coordinator added that the Anti-Kidnapping Unit of the command was not left out as operatives of the unit dabble into civil matters such as landlord and tenant matters.

“Sometime in 2018 NOPRIN intervened to stop the unit (anti-Kidnapping) from detaining and intimidating a pastor over a dispute with his landlady. The landlady sold the property where the pastor has his church while his tenancy was still subsisting and wanted to use the Anti-Kidnapping Unit where he probably knew an officer to force him out without refunding his outstanding money. They cooked up allegations of ‘threat to life’ against the pastor when there was no such thing at all- just to intimidate him.

“One of the first steps that Mr. Imohimi Edgal took upon assuming office as CP Lagos was to remove the OC in charge of the Anti-Kidnapping Unit following a complaint about the unlawful detention and intimidation of a woman framed by her boss with stealing and extortion allegations just to get her out of work. Officers at that unity were also accused of sexually abusing the sisters of the victim when they came to visit her in detention”, he added.

While commending the Lagos State Police command for promptly arresting the culprits in this particular case, visiting and reassuring the family and Lagos residents of the command’s commitment to justice and punishing abuses, Mr. Nwanguma however hoped that with the CP’s record of professionalism, deep knowledge of and experience in community policing, he would bring about the needed reforms in Lagos State Police command so as to restore public trust and community support and partnership in the command’s safety and security efforts.

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