It still baffles me when I see and hear the slogan ‘the
police is your friend’. The big questions that have lingered on in my mind are;
Are they really our friends? Do they really care about our welfare? Do they
fight for our rights and ensure peace and order in our society? Or are they
mercenaries of chaos? Until recently, I found the answers to these questions. This
is the story of a final year student; IBRAHIM MOMODU, twenty-two(22)years of
age, and a student of the University of Benin from the department of Science
Lab Technology, who murdered by the police at the Ogida barrack on the 27th
of May 2013. Murdered on what grounds? It was alleged that he was a robber
prowling the vicinity on a motorcycle and was shot on the leg by a Divisional
Police Officer (D.P.O) because he tried to refuse a lawful arrest. I wonder why
a gun shot on the leg would suddenly appear on the chest because I never
imagine our police force to be part of a magic circus. Here arises another
question hanging on the pendulum of the societal clock. Who shot the boy in the
chest that led to his untimely demise? I thought this denial happens only in cartoons
and movies. I begin to wonder about the functions of the police, whether it is
to take life or preserve life.
The point that really makes me
smell a rat in the bag, is the quick burial of the boy without notifying his family.
The newly found attitudes of the Nigerian police makes me go berserk, and have
kittens. John Bancroft, the founder of
the police force in the 1930’s never intended professional misconduct, neither
does the Police Act stipulate that a police must kill a person upon having a
screw loose in the head or irated by the actions of the citizens. I wonder what
a human could have done to warrant such sore and ignominious treatment. This is
really not the first time that the police have portrayed this ludicrous
disposition to the Nigerian public and the International community at large.
The very fact that Section 24(e) CFRN 199 provides that “It
shall be the duty of every citizen to render assistance to appropriate and
lawful agencies in the maintenance of law and order”, will continue to
be a constitutional dead-letter as a result of the disposition of the police to
Nigerians.
What then is the position of the
law in relation to this societal issue? Section
306 of the Criminal Code Act provides
that “It is unlawful to kill any person unless such killing is authorised or
justified or excused by law.” Can it be said, beyond the preponderance
of all vagaries of doubt, that the act of the policewoman shooting a male student
on his chest is justifiable or excusable by law? Section 315 of the Criminal
Code Act provides that “Any person who unlawfully kills another is
guilty of an offence which is called murder or manslaughter according to the
circumstances of the case.”
Some pundits may say it is not an
unlawful killing since they are authorised and institutionalised, boldly
executing functions within their exclusive domain as their duties require. This
would amount to be a subjective argument. If the deceased Momodu was with a
gun, it could then have been said that they shot him in self-defence in the
execution of their duties. But this was not the case. The police shot him on
the chest when he was without a weapon. Can it then be said that Momodu
constituted, or had reason to constitute a reasonable modicum of threat to the
existence and well-being of the policewoman who shot him? The policewoman’s
action is a clear usurpation judicial function and an utter deprivation of
Momodu’s fundamental right to life. As regards the deprivation of his
fundamental rights, Section 33(1) CFRN
1999 expressly provides that “every person has a right to life…” as
regards the usurpation of judicial functions, it provides in that same
subsection that “…no one should be deprived intentionally of his life, save in the
execution of the sentence of a criminal offence of which he has been found
guilty of in Nigeria.” This therefore means that only the court
has the imprimatur to declare a judicial fiat of death sentence on any person
charged with a criminal offence.
In fact, it can even be said that
the defaulting policewoman had no intention to arrest, for if she actually had
an intention to arrest, she would had shot him on the leg. It has been
established that it is only the court that has the judicial power to pronounce
death sentence or order the execution of a criminal. It means that any other institutionalised
or executory body e.g. the Police Force, the EFCC, et cetera, in the exercise
of their duty cannot kill or snuff out the life of any citizen except in the
case of defence. It therefore means that the policewoman’s action was unlawful and
Section
319(1) of the Criminal Code Act provides that “…anyone who commits the offence
of murder shall be sentenced to death.”
The police is meant to be the
centre of the nation’s control tower concerning security. They do not reflect
the National ethics of discipline, integrity, et cetera as contained in Section
23 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999. They rather
act in manners that are unscrupulous, always on their marks to take bribes
every now and then, and in n a hurry to oppress people who stand against it,
they act in tardy manners, tentative towards their duty but up and doing to get
involved in purely civil matters because of the meagre amount or chicken feed that
would swell their pockets; very truculent and have left us with no legacy. This
will be a food for thought to all policemen, both constables and
inspector-Generals. If you take bribe, you sell your integrity. It is the
cheapest and the least expensive route to a policeman’s heart. The masses see
it as a weakness on the part of the police, but the latter see it as their strength
to walk over the masses.
Oh! What an ignorance! A split
hair discrepancy. Policemen may ignore their ignorance, but their ignorance
will never ignore them in public.
It is therefore time for the
police to hold their moral view tenaciously and be ardent about maintaining
peace and order instead of being instruments of chaos. It was once said by a
renowned writer that “true nobility is not being superior to
others but being superior to who you were.” For to be loyal to your
superior is a duty, to your equals is nobility, but to your inferiors is humility.
It is high time we clean the force of all “criminals”, who parade themselves as
‘catchminals’ to wake them up from
their illusory slumber and stop them from being myopic to the erroneous fact
that the Police Force is a place to make daily gains. It has also been said that
“if
you cannot stand the heat, then get out of the kitchen.” It is also time
for the ‘dutiful’, shylock; and incompetent ones to leave while the competent
ones who are ready to serve be brought in.
The Nigerian Police force
constitutes a gathering of highly impetuous, lugubriously ludicrous, and
unscrupulous ‘servants’, and until the force is swept, brushed, cleaned and
wiped, we cannot have a better service.
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