BY
PRINCE OLIVER OKPALA
Recently, the Amnesty International published an Annual Report in which it leveled some allegations against the Nigerian Police and was carried by many media organizations. The publication relates to a report entitled, “Nigeria: Killing at will – Extrajudicial Executions and other unlawful killings”. It should be observed that this is not the first time the Amnesty International is beaming her searchlight on the Nigerian Police. The Amnesty International is an organization which ex-rays human rights records all over the world. Ordinarily, research into the human rights records of any country must be generally commended. But there is everything wrong with a report that is based on incomplete and doctored facts, and a complete blackout of the major stakeholders in the human rights enterprise.
The report, which analyses humans rights record in Nigeria, surmises that between July 2007 to June 2009, there were 39 cases of executions, enforced disappearances, and police harassment, unlawful detention; and cover-up of illegal killings. This report appears one-sided and biased in the sense that most of the allegations of illegal killings, torture and enforced disappearances were not responded to by top police officers and other stakeholders. It is necessary to explain some salient aspects of the report. The report claims that the police shoot people needlessly and torture detainees to death. The report was curiously silent on the names, and other particulars of those shot and killed by the police. Again, the report did not mention the identities of the relations of the deceased persons, whether they reported those cases to the Police High Command and whether or not they sought redress in court. The report quarrels with Police Force order 237 under which it stated that the police are allowed to shot suspects and detainees making an escape or avoiding arrest. The Police Force is established under the law. In her operations and activities, the police are guided by the Nigeria constitution and the police Act. It is strange to suggest that police derive their power to fight crime and take certain decisions in the exercise of their duties in some extent “Force Order”. A Force Order is a guideline. It is not a law.
In recent time, there have been proactive steps to enable the police fight crime more effectively. Indeed, the police have been trying to live up to public expectation as witnessed in the immediate halt and end to the Boko Haram rebellion in Bauchi, the arrest of the harvest of kidnapping in Anambra and the checking of armed robbery in Enugu. The report creates a false impression that the Nigeria Police is a murderous squad. This is not fair and it is not true. Admittedly, the police have not performed at hundred percent capacity. The police have not met all the expectations of law-abiding Nigerians. The Nigeria police Force was not established to kill Nigerians and they have not killed any Nigerian deliberately. It is true that there have been cases of accidental discharge leading to death. There are many instances where policemen involved in such acts were arraigned and tried in the court of law. Recently, a policeman who shot into the air sporadically and released tear gas canisters in an Ibadan Hospital, causing the death of a child was arrested by the police and will soon be arraigned in court. The policemen who accidentally killed a traditional ruler in Anambra State were charged to court. Policemen who raped some detainees were charged to court and convicted.
Infact, policemen who go against the law in one way or the other are regularly made to face the music. The Amnesty report is aimed at putting Nigerian people on a collision course with their policemen. The Force needs encouragement, not denigration. It needs commendation, not condemnation. The Police Force has embarked upon internal reform particularly since the present Inspector – General of Police, Mr. Ogbanna Onovo, came on board. The new IG should be encouraged. Some fifth columnists should not use any unresearched report to scuttle the work which the police have been doing. The new police leadership should be allowed to continue the good work to unfold his vision for a modern police force. Surely, the Amnesty International report was a distraction.
Source: recorded live from FRCN daily commentary
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