- Victims’ families denied justice, compensation – Rights groups
In spite of its mandate “to create a safe and secure environment for everyone living in Nigeria,” incidences of brutality and extrajudicial killings of innocent citizens by men of the Nigeria Police have continued unabated across the country, investigations by our correspondent have revealed.
The practice, fuelled by a combination of carelessness, sheer disregard for human lives and an insatiable appetite to make money through extortion by some members of the Force, have ensured that men saddled with the duty to protect the citizenry are increasingly becoming predators.
Painstaking checks with the Police and various credible human rights groups on data spanning over the last 10 years, revealed that more than 1000 Nigerians, mostly breadwinners and promising future leaders, had been sent to early graves through extrajudicial killings.
Worse still, in virtually all the cases established against erring police officers, justice had neither been served nor the victims’ family members given any form of compensation by the Police. “Justice eluded the victims just because the hierarchy of the Force wanted to protect and shield their own,” one of the accounts said.
There is no single police station or outpost across Nigeria that is blameless in this matter. In fact, I can tell you that some police officers take delight in it, as if they are cursed or under oath to always spill blood of the innocent
For instance, The Point independently gathered from human rights organisations, such as the Intersociety for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, Centre for Human Rights and Peace Advocacy and Forum for Justice, that in about six months, between August 2015 and February 2016, over 155 innocent Nigerians were recklessly killed, while about 500 others were either maimed or detained without trial by the men and officers of the Nigeria Police Force.
This is aside from the Civil Liberties Organisation of Nigeria’s documented 30 cases of culpable homicides, arising from reckless use of fire arms by members of the Nigeria Police Force in 2004. Only last Saturday, in yet another reckless case of police brutality, two casual workers of Chi Limited, with headquarters in Ajao Estate, Lagos, were reportedly shot by officers of the Lagos State Police Command.
The victims, who later died from gunshot injuries sustained in the leg and thigh, respectively, were said to have been part of a group of casual workers protesting alleged maltreatment by the management. One of them was identified as Daniel Osikoya, a 19-year-old who had just joined the company earlier in December.
The father of one of the deceased, Olufemi Osikoya, bemoaned the fact that the company failed to inform the family on time after the police shooting. “He was shot in two places. Instead of them to rush him to a public hospital, he was taken to the company’s clinic. He gave up just as we got to the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, Ikeja,” Osikoya said.
Ironically, almost all the officers privileged to have occupied the seat of the Inspector General of Police in the Fourth Republic, had pledged to put an end to extrajudicial killings in the Force while taking office. But the malaise lingers. According to security analysts, none of the IGPs, from Tafa Balogun, Sunday Ehindero, Mike Okiro, Ogbonnaya Onovo, Hafiz Ringim, Mohammed Abubakar, to the present IGP, Ibrahim Idris, has succeeded in taming the monster.
MEMORABLE CASES
A look at the tenures of the respective IGPs shows an alarming trend. Balogun was appointed the IGP in 2002. And in his three years in office, no fewer than 30 Nigerians were cut down by the bullets of policemen. Ehindero served as IGP from 2005 to 2007 as the IGP. But his tenure witnessed the infamous Apo killings of six Igbo traders, namely, Ifeanyi Ozo, Chinedu Meniru, Isaac Ekene, Paulinus Ogbonna, Anthony Nwokike and Tina Anabu.
The killings sparked off angst across the nation, as the police made futile attempts to do a cover up. The incident came on the heels of the confession of one Chukwudi Chukwu, a police photographer, who said that the police simply placed weapons close to some of the slain victims, so as to pass them off as armed robbers.
In respect of the Apo killings, six police officers were later arraigned before an Abuja High Court, while Ibrahim Uthman, the Divisional Police Officer attached to Garki Police Station, where the third degree murders took place, remains at large till date. The six police officers standing trial in the case include Danjuma Ibrahim, Othman Abdusalami, Nikolas Zakaria, Ezekiel Acheneje, Baba Emmanuel and Sadiq Salami.
The case was before Justice Ishaq Bello and the accused were charged by the Attorney General of the Federation in 2005. But it has remained inconclusive till date, having suffered several judicial summersaults and reversals.
A similar case was recorded at Yaya – Abatan, Ogba, Lagos State, during the fuel subsidy protest of 2012, when a protester, Ademola Daramola, was shot by the then Divisional Police Officer of Pen Cinema Police Station, Mr. Segun Fabunmi. Fabunmi was hurriedly pronounced dismissed from the Force. He was later arraigned in court and jailed for 10 years, having been found guilty of the offence.
Further checks by The Point revealed that, just like every other year, some men and officers of the Force Criminal Investigations Department arrested and detained one Assistant Superintendent of Police and six others over extrajudicial killings in two separate incidents.
The separate incidents took place in Abuja and Benin respectively. In the first incident, which occurred in Abuja, ASP Mohammed Yusuf and two others, identified as Corporals Agada Lawrence and Agada Kennedy, killed the son of a former Chairman, Senate Committee on Defence, Fidelis Okoro His son, John Chukwuemeka Okoro, was with his friend, Sunday Marcus, when the police, who were apparently responding to a distress call, flagged them down.
Marcus was said to have dramatically escaped from the scene, while Chukwuemeka was arrested. John had his leg bullet-holed, even though he was not armed or resisting arrest. At the station, the boy was reportedly further shot in the chest, resulting in complications that finally led to his untimely death.
The second incident took place in the Adadawa area of Edo State. The case was reported in 2015, when one Sunday Obode was extra-judicially killed by the police. In this particular case, Corporals Adeleke Adedejo, Henry Shobowale and Oniyo Musa were detailed to investigate a robbery case in the Agege area of Lagos.
A man, identified as Alhaji Yisa Babangida, had complained to the police that he was deprived of his Toyota car and other valuables, by a gang of robbers. The investigation that followed took the officers to Edo State, after which the receiver of the stolen vehicle reportedly implicated one Sunday Obode.
On getting to Edo State, the suspect was allegedly arrested without any resistance, but the police officers also allegedly kill him. It took the intervention of the then IGP, Mr. Solomon Arase, before the killer police officers could be arrested. But that was the end of the story, investigations revealed.
Our ordeal – Victims’ relatives
In November 2013, Terhile Ikpila and Loho Dutse, both of Wukari Local Government Area of Taraba State, were travelling for a night church programme along the Jalingo-Wukari road in Taraba, when they were killed by trigger-happy policemen.
After recovering from the loss, the two families of the deceased decided to seek redress. According to Peter Ikpila, a relative of Terhile, the families decided to take the Police to court and seek justice. So, alongside Bem Dutse, he filed a case on February 4, 2014, accusing the police of unlawfully killing the deceased on November 16, 2013.
Delivering his ruling, Justice Donatus Okorowo, on May 30, 2014, ruled that the plaintiff’s counsel had proved his case beyond reasonable doubt. He said that the deceased were killed extrajudicially by the police. Ikpila said, “The justice said that the police took no precaution to avoid hurting the victims and killing the deceased; and that they were reckless with the use of fire arms that resulted in the deprivation of right of life of the deceased.
“He urged the Police to always respect human lives as no one is permitted to take the life of another except in few circumstances permitted by law. Though, we demanded N400 million each, he ordered the Police to pay N7.5 million to each family as reasonable compensation for the loss of life of each of the deceased. But there is no amount of money that could replace our loved ones.” However, as at the time of filing this report, our correspondent could not confirm whether both families had been compensated as ruled.
EXPERTS SPEAK
With the growing spectre of extrajudicial killings and with most victims’ family members left to rue their losses, the President, Campaign for Democracy, Barrister Malaki Ugwumadu, told The Point that there were provisions to seek redress in the court of law, for victims of Police brutality as enshrined in Chapter 4, of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
He stressed that the essence of the chapter “starts from section 33, which deals with the Rights of the individuals, down to section 45 as the case may be.” He said victims had powers to seek redress and get duly compensated, adding that “an average Nigerian does not know his rights, which explains why the police have continually violated their rights, either through reckless killings or maiming as the case may be.”
‘Most missing persons were victims of police killings’
A security expert and lawyer, who runs a security outfit in Abuja, Gbenro Adeoye, however, said that the Boko Haram insurgency that had claimed thousands of lives in the North-East, might not have assumed the deadly dimension it took, had the police not, in its usual manner, allegedly extrajudicially killed the first acclaimed leader of the sect, Mohammed Yusuf, a few hours after his arrest. Adeoye said that, ironically, not one single police officer has been made to face the music for that killing
ARRAIGNMENTS IN COURTS
Investigations by our correspondent showed that some of the cases bordering on extrajudicial killings were taken to court by the office of the Attorney General of the Federation, while on some occasions, panels of enquiry were set up to probe the illegal killings.
But most of the cases have, to date, remained stalled at the courts. Findings revealed that in some instances, police authorities hurriedly dismissed erring officers and even paraded them publicly. But the measure has not had much impact, as it was established that in some cases, some of the dismissed officers often found their ways back into the Force when the dust raised by their misdemeanours and dismissal had subsided.
Victims have powers to seek redress and get duly compensated. But an average Nigerian does not know his rights, which explains why the police have continually violated their rights, either through reckless killings or maiming
‘BLAME THE JUDICIARY TOO’
However, the Chief Executive Officer, Paths to Nigerian Freedom, Comrade Dandy Eze, told The Point that the Police alone was not to blame for the recurring killings, saying that the judiciary must share in the blame. He said, “Some of the extrajudicial killings were committed partly because the Police might have lost faith in the judiciary, which they see as aiding and abetting crimes.
The police have collectively and conclusively lost confidence in the procedural trial of suspects in line with legal principles. “Suspects taken to court are, sooner than later, back on their criminal beats. This time around, they tend to hunt for the officer, who took them to the court in the first place. It is sad.”
WE’RE IN CONTROL – POLICE
However, Superintendent Badmos denied any wrongdoing on the part of the officers, saying that “the police as a body have inner mechanism of disciplining any erring officer.” “There are human rights desks at all the stations across the state, where complaints could be lodged. An average police officer knows the implication of engaging in activities capable of ridiculing the force,” she said. She added that the Lagos Police Command had not received any case bordering on extrajudicial killing by its officers in the recent past. But a senior police officer, who pleaded anonymity, told The Point that if the Force claimed ignorance of or denied the allegation of extrajudicial killing, then it was only being economical with the truth. He said, “There is no single police station or outpost across Nigeria that is blameless in this matter. In fact, I can tell you that some police officers take delight in it, as if they are cursed or under oath to always spill blood of the innocent. “Many innocent Nigerians have met their untimely deaths in the hands of the Police. I can tell you authoritatively that in most cases of missing persons, they were victims of police’ extrajudicial killings
