FWPI Editorial: Lawless Impunity Of The Nigerian Police Nigeria, the so-called giant of Africa, is a bad representration in many fronts,...
Nigeria, the so-called giant of Africa, is a bad representration in many fronts, It's mastery in evil invention is not only alarming but disgusting. It's security operatives with the police department as a case study, runs bereft of civility, professionalism and discipline. Police brutality in Nigeria worsens in every passing day.
It is no more news that amongst the three major indigenous ethnic nationalities forced together as one country in 1914 by the British, Biafrans have bore the brunt of brutality across the land. Officers and men of the police force are seldom trusted because of their unprofessional antecedents. Despite global revolutionalization in policing, the Nigerian police force yet operates in crudity and gross misconduct against the people, without whom they have absolutely no relevance. A whole lot of Biafrans have either been extra-judicially killed, maimed or unjustly incarcerated. Regrettably, there happens to be records of acts of lawlessness coupled with bizarre operational policies associated with the Nigerian police system, shamelessly driven by corrupt and self-serving political leadership.
There exists grave fundamental issues in the system that those who find themselves at the corridors of power have almost always ridiculed the very essence of civilized policing in the society. The officers and men with untainted few grow into monsters and vampires the moment the uniforms come upon them with rifles in their hands. They loose their humanness, becoming extravagantly wicked, vicious, depraved, corrupt, impious, godless, profane, atrocious, criminal and vampiric. Many Biafrans over the years have suffered varying degrees of brutality and even death in the hands of the Nigerian policemen prior to the present global pestilence called coronavirus. They mount illegal roadblocks, extorting money from the innocent and overburdened road users, etcetera.
The covid-19 epidemic that is today ravaging the world, finally got it's hold on Nigeria and it has become hydra-faceted business fronts for the corrupt. The Nigerian police officers in trying to enforce covid-19 lockdown across Biafraland has even recorded more deaths than the deadly virus itself, courtesy of trigger-happy, unprofessional policemen. People's lives are being cut down at will without recourse.
Nigeria as a country, indeed epitomizes lawlessness and impunity in every sphere of existence. Within the last years, police brutality has steadily been gaining momentum. Every passing day people look over their shoulders, terribly frightened over their safety and security. Illegal use of firearms by these set of uniformed men has persistently elucidated a cacophony of assault, intimidation, harassment and even death on the very innocent that they were constitutionally empowered to protect.
There is palpable fear of being recklessly killed by officers and men of the Nigerian police force due bad leadership culture and gross acts of unprofessionalism. Record of death victims especially in Biafraland, has been on growth rate with absolute connivance of the powers that be. Families are losing their loved ones as a result of these trigger-happy, uncultured and totally untrained policemen with nobody to speak for them. Nigeria democratic experiment is purely bereft of decency, civility and human rights. Corruption, impunity and power abuse have become the order of the day. Police criminal activities against the defenseless if left unchecked, could trigger off an unprecedented wave of reactionary protests and riots against the authorities.
Upcoming generations are steadily being bamboozled with the slogan that "police is your friend" and with the level of despotism, brutality and death being visited on the youths, no right thinking person would ever want to see them from a different perception. Many of these so-called "law enforcers" have become ardent law breakers themselves. The very people they are meant to guide and protect in the society, have become their slaughtering targets, being shot at and arrogantly killed at will. The threats being faced before these enforcers of the law, are on astronomical growth in Nigeria. This is the stark reality of living in a supposedly democratic country with the police being a law to itself.
The Nigerian police force is corruption epitomized. Officers and men brazenly extort money from citizens via illegal roadblocks, very controversial arrests/detentions, etcetera. Enlisting into the Nigerian police is just like getting recruited into a cult of criminality. And because of their antecedents, they are being ridiculed and hated in the society. Policemen are being used as agents of oppressors by politicians and their stooges. Videos are rife on Facebook of police brutality of innocent citizens with absolutely no definitive measures put in place to stem this evil.
And the earlier these excesses are curbed, the better for all. Biafrans cannot continue to lose their loved ones to police indecent behaviors. No civilized society even in this 21st century, lies low when innocent citizens are being daily sacrificed on the altar of impunity and lawlessness. The Nigerian police force should be re-orientated and promptly too.
Written by Domendu Emilia
Editor, Family Writers Press International
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