#END_SARS_NOW

When white police officers shoot and kill armless black people, it's easy to label it institutionalised racism, which makes it difficult to explain what to term the same barbarity when it happens between policemen in Nigeria, killing Nigerian youths when both are black. What is most unfortunate about this, is that in America the government joins in the conversation, while in Nigeria the organs of government keep mum, almost as if the police is acting according to instructions from them. The frequency with which the anti - robbery squad have been going about mowing down the youth of this country in recent times with brazen impunity, compared to the recent past where activities by them tail off after another video of them extrajudicially murdering someone comes to fore, and are then reported to have been arrested and awaiting prosecution, suggests that either they've seen that no punishment was eventually meted out to the erring ones formerly arrested, or whatever leash or restrictions that existed (no matter how weak), has now been totally lifted.

There are certain peculiarities about the harassment and killing of Nigerians by mostly the Special Anti-Robberies Squad, SARS of the Nigerian Police, that leaves the discerning wondering if there's an agenda behind the unending tales of woe coming from Nigerian youths regarding they way they are being treated by the Nigerian police. The main peculiarity is the fact that most of these infringements on the rights of Nigerians occur in the South, leaving one to suspect a subjugation agenda against Southerners, especially the young people of the region. It used to be that they were profiled, and those with tattoos, dreadlocks, wearing jewellery, possessing expensive smart phones, driving state of the art automobiles, amongst others were targeted, however recent cases of harassment suggests that just about any other person is now a target for these men, and all of a sudden no one is safe, at the hands of those whose core responsibility is to protect Nigerians from the hands of armed robbers. Unfortunately, while these SARS men target those they've so profiled to be criminals or fraudsters, their ilks are the sort who provide security for the real gangsters, fraudsters and criminals in town, so what are we saying? 

The experiences of most Nigerians at the hands of these men have been horrifying to say the least. The least that can happen to those who are unfortunate to fall victims to them, is extortion. Victims could also get beaten up, sustaining life altering and/or threatening injuries sometimes, and in increasing cases, loss of lives. Though online personalities like the famous Segalink, have at various times come to the rescue of hapless Nigerians after coming in contact with these evil minded gun-toting wretches, sadly the experience once felt cannot be unfelt, and any compensation (usually refunds only) does little to nothing to erase the scars, physical as well as physiological, suffered by the victims. Also, the fact that Segalink and other activists like him cannot be allover Nigeria, even in the South where the activities of these criminals is rampant means that the unreported number of Nigerians who do not get redress is far more than those who do, and for the dead, they would have died, for nothing!

The saddest part of this is the silence. The silence from those who could truly cause all of this to stop. Those whose silence makes them appear complicit, include those in the executive arm of government, who by just issuing a statement could bring this to a halt, and also bringing to book errant members of the police force who perpetrate these heinous crimes, to members of the legislature who could raise the issue as a matter of urgent national importance, to people whose voices matter in the society, whose voices they speedily append to political talk, but have suddenly gone dumb, even deaf since the harassment and killing of armless Nigerians became a thing, amongst police officers, before you begin to mention so called influencers on social media, some of whom for some pittance turned their backs on the suffering of their fellow citizens by trying to justify the actions of the bloodletters in uniform.

Beyond ending SARS, a reorganisation of the Nigerian Police Force has become necessary, if not long overdue. This is because even before SARS became a menace, the regular police were not any better, and I have written about that in BAIL IS FREE, therefore any reform shouldn't be piecemeal, rather holistic, from those extorting motorists on the roads and highways, to those at the police station who make a lie of the fact that "bail is free", and the likes. This must be done if the shame that the Nigerian Police has constituted itself to be amongst Nigerians, and before the outside world is to be a thing of the past. Merely banning their activities on the road, as the Inspector General of Police has just done will not cut, as this latest action is the umpteenth time it's happening, only to subtly resume, and return to its menacing levels once again. We've been here before, hence much more than mere rhetorics is what is needed now, with the Police Reform Bill properly implemented to the latter, or if found wanting scrutinised to ensure that areas that provide leeway for the abuse of the rights of Nigerians are expunged.

'kovich 

BAIL IS FREE

My personal encounter with the Nigerian Police have been very few and far between. The first time was while I was in the university in 2003, when I was nabbed by members of a task force set up by the Lagos State Government to stop pedestrians from crossing very busy roads, especially where there are already pedestrian bridges provided for the purpose. I hadn't used the bridge, and once I made it to the other side, a man walked up to me, and marched me to a waiting "danfo" bus, where I met some others who'd been as unlucky as I have been. Like me, their pleas to our "captors" with promises always to use the pedestrian bridge was like pouring water on a rock, save for the oldest man amongst us, middle aged, who brandishing an inhaler, claimed that his asthmatic condition worsens when he ascends heights, and therefore was let go, especially as he started to tremble and twitch violently, as he pleaded with the members of the task force to let him go on medical grounds.


The rest of us were taken to a Police Station somewhere in Shomolu, from Onipanu where we were arrested, and herded into a crowded cell, where one could only stand, to wait till Monday when the courts open to be charged seeing as it was a Friday afternoon. I had only ₦250 with me, so I couldn't avail myself of the opportunity to call home because the "official" phone lady of that police station charged ₦50 per minute to make a call to relatives or friends for help (those were the days GSM phones had just been launched and still cost an arm and a leg for a poor student like me to own). About an hour after we'd been in detention, towards evening, one of the policemen came by to ask us what we had so he could see if he could help us, to forestall our being in detention through the weekend. When it was my turn I explained to him that I was a student and gave him my wallet that contained my ID Card as well as money. He took the ₦200 and gave me ₦50, opened the cell and let me out. I was the only one that was let out, while the others who had called family and friends had to wait to be bailed. The only good thing that came out of that experience for me, was that while walking a few distance before getting a bus to my sisters' house to ask for money to return to school, I came upon a makeshift structure where registration for National ID Card was ongoing. Seeing that I hadn't been chanced to do that earlier, I used that opportunity to register and went on my way. I doubt I'd have owned one today if I hadn't been arrested on that day, of which I'm grateful considering that stress applicants undergo today to get the same national ID Card, though with advanced features.

My second encounter was months after the first, and my friends and I were returning back to campus after attending a birthday party not so far from school. Yes, it was late and we couldn't get a bus to take us home, so we trekked. All was well till we encountered these policemen a few yards from the gate of our school. Our explanation to them of nothing but the truth about our situation seemed to anger them such that I wasn't sure if one of them in particular was angry with the fact that we looked too young to be medical students, or that we had no right to be happy and attending birthday parties, while they were on the road working, enough for him to threaten to shoot us, and nothing will happen to him. Luckily, we hadn't been too inebriated at the time to try and question their harassment of us, rather the fear of the guns they had on them was the beginning of our wisdom, but I was quite shaken by the way we were verbally harassed and threatened. Interestingly, after they let us go, and we walked into school, then to the hostel area, and to our rooms, we said nothing to each other, and till date I've never asked my co-travelers from Agbe Davies' birthday party, what was going on in their minds while our ordeal lasted.


Yes compared to what Nigerians go through in the hands of the police on a daily, I count myself rather lucky. But I've also seen friends who'd been served the short end of the stick. In one case two years ago, we had to rally round to raise  ₦100,000 to take a friend away from "SARS" detention at Ikeja, where he'd been detained at the instance of his landlord with whom he had a  misunderstanding at the time. The money wasn't even just so he could walk away a free man, but that he could be detained at the normal neighborhood police station, after he began to fear for his life, as the number of detainees (mostly suspected armed robbers and criminals) he was lobbed in with, continued to decrease by the day, not necessarily because they were taken to court, and from thence to prison, but because such disappearances was usually linked with gunshots heard in the vicinity of the detention area in the nights. On yet another occasion involving another friend, who was arrested during "routine raids", in what appeared to be a fundraising activity of the particular police station that conducted the raid, seeing as it was the past Eid El Kabir a few weeks back, each one of the "unfortunates" were made to cough out between ₦20,000 and ₦50,000 after signing an undertaking, stating even things as ridiculous as promising to stop walking about in the night. We paid  ₦20,000 in the case of my friend because we brought the head of the "PCRC" of our area to plead on his behalf, others paid more, and I shook my head as we walked away with him that afternoon of the last Sallah holiday, while the policemen began to gather in their haul for the day, probably to decide with what exactly they'd make a meal of the big ram that was already tied to a tree within the police station's compound.

There are other instances that I will not mention here, but I mustn't stop without adding this one. I'm sure while you're reading this, you'd probably be wondering why we never contacted lawyers in almost all of the cases that my attention was called to. This is because I have found that there are some lawyers that feed off situations like these. They hang around police stations pretending to try to offer help to those in detention, while working in cahoot with the police to fleece the detainees of all they could possibly. More often than not, when those cases go to court, they put up very weak defences, or fail to help protect their "clients" from outrageous bail conditions, that will end up seeing the detainee become a prisoner "awaiting trial" for years in the many gulags scattered allover Nigeria, and not without collecting their charges to the fullest sometimes with threats to abandon the same case they jeopardized right from the onset. The only lawyers that can bring you out of police detention are the top so called SENIOR ADVOCATES, and they can even effect free bail for their clients, unfortunately they aren't usually available for and to the masses, who are usually at the mercies of extortionist members of the Nigerian Police Force and their collaborator lawyers.


When recently the Nigerian Police expressed their disgust to a recent finding that suggested that that outfit ranks the worst in the world, many Nigerians were left wondering in bewilderment. A friend even said it is wrong to even classify Nigerian police amongst the worst in 2017, because they hadn't even arrived here yet, seeing as their crude tactics is still in the seventeenth century. Recently, the police in Rivers State paraded two suspected killers of a staff of Shell Oil Producing company, stating that they were apprehended using DNA and forensic science. Interestingly, it was a case I got to know about from my host when I arrived Port Harcourt hours after the ugly incident had occurred, and I'd written about in one of my blog posts (https://madukovich.wordpress.com/2017/05/08/rivers-state-of-blood/). I learnt later that it was detectives hired by Shell that took saliva sample on the head of the victim to Holland, with which they matched the DNA with some staff of Shell and subsidiaries/oil servicing companies before the culprits were nabbed, because if you'd been to Shell R.A. in Port Harcourt and the company, and seen the security apparatus therein, you'd also agree with the investigating team that the killing of that man was an inside job. Had one of the perpetrators not spat on the head of their victim after their dastardly act, they'd probably would've gotten away with it. Sadly, the police in their statements never mentioned nor acknowledged the contribution of the Shell Police and their local and foreign detectives in their statement.


In fact, it was disbelief at their ability to solve the crime the way they said they did that evoked my desire to find answers. How a police that we saw recently stepping over blood and evidence around a dead bank robber in pictures that went viral following that exchange of fire between gallant policemen and robbers, at a Zenith Bank branch, was beyond my comprehension. A Nigerian police that invited the FBI to help it crack the case of the murder of frontline Lagos politician, Engineer Funsho Williams, only to find fingerprints allover his body,  that may have included that of police personnel, as they flippantly desecrated the crime scene like the civilian family members and sympathizers that thronged the home of the late politician, after news of his gruesome killing spread like wildfire. But I digress, because my focus and all I want to say is that despite so called noise by the police hierarchy that bail is free, the reality on ground is otherwise, and even more notoriously dangerous because innocent Nigerians are losing their lives, or having it truncated temporarily because they cannot afford the huge amounts policemen, on the roads and in the stations are demanding from their "hostages" before they can let them go, boasting that nothing will happen to them even if they shoot and kill their victims, as the hierarchy who are also involved in their own mess (if you consider any of the allegations against the Inspector General of Police by Senator Misau to have some truths in it) at their level, cannot then decree to rank and file what they should do when they haven't come to equity with clean hands.

Despite the very few instances of the Nigerian Police Force rising to check the troubling trend, of cases where hapless Nigerians (mostly adolescents and young people, under the guise of combating cybercrime, with their phones and laptops confiscated, and their online privacy violated all in the bid to dig up incriminating evidence, which in the eye of the uncouth policemen, include legitimate online businesses that many Nigerian youths have turned to, because of the absence of physical jobs to employ them) are arbitrarily rounded up on the flimsiest of reasons, and forced to make withdrawals using their ATM cards, or transfers from their mobile devices, or have families run helter skelter to raise funds, as you'd find with kidnappers demanding ransom. The sad reality is that for every policeman dismissed and tried for these acts of extortion, inflicting of bodily harm and injury on their victims, as well as extrajudicial killing of those who dared to question the authority of the armed policeman to dehumanize him/her, there are multiples of such happening under the radar, so much so that when AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL comes up with figures, Nigerians have come to just read them without any outrage, because of the helplessness and hopelessness of their situation. Even the  Public Relations Department of the Nigerian Police have grown a thick skin, and now hardly responds to new findings, except those that have managed to make it into the international media. When they do respond, they offer some of the lamest of excuses that in no way addresses any of the concerns raised by the bodies that have painstakingly offered testimonies (at the risk of the lives of the victims of police mistreatments) and empirical evidences. Admitting wrong done, talk more apologizing doesn't even come up, and therein lies the motivation for the impunity that continues to stare Nigerians in the face in the name of BAIL IS FREE, when it is absolutely not, at the hands of the police that should protect and serve the people.

'kovich


PICTURE CREDIT:
- http://www.nairaland.com
- https://www.onlyinnigeria.wordpress.com

INGLORIOUS POLICING ENCOURAGES JUNGLE JUSTICE IN NIGERIA

A vigilante group arrested one Ifeanyi Dike on his way to dispose of the body of an eight year old girl, he'd raped, killed, and mutilated for ritual purposes, and handed him over to the Police, somewhere in Rivers State.

The culprit who was swiftly paraded by the police (not because of any thorough job they did in apprehending him) earlier, was later reported by the same police to have escaped from detention, stating that a manhunt for the suspect has been initiated, even before many people could come to terms with the story surrounding the murder of the poor girl.

Now you wonder how this will not feed into the arguments of those in support of jungle justice, as once again the Nigerian police proves itself incapable of maintaining the integrity of Nigeria's criminal justice system, at least their own part of the bargain. To add salt to the injury they created, once the police announced the escape of the suspect, they were also quick to deploy men to put down protests by members of the community, who thronged the street yesterday to express their displeasure at the Rivers State police' poor handling of the case, only to be teargassed and forcefully dispersed by the same police that just allowed a criminal walk from their facility, on the pretext that the peaceful protest was infiltrated by thugs?


It's interesting that this happened in a Rivers State where just recently some members of Aluu community were sentenced to death for involvement in the lynching of four undergraduates four years ago (the first time in recent history, perpetrators of jungle justice will be so treated), after they were apprehended by vigilante groups who accused them of armed robbery, then went on, along with others to mete extra-judicial justice on them. Which must have informed the decision if this particular vigilante group to opt to handing the suspect in this case over to the police for prosecution.


Sadly, the police may have inadvertently granted the people who have already lost confidence in their ability to curb crime and criminality, a go ahead to procure and obtain justice by any means they consider necessary, under the shadows, seeing that most of the noise against jungle justice have come because of video evidence and social media.


This incident, amongst several others lends voice to those calling for state police. The Nigerian police as presently constituted, serves the interest of  government, those in power, politicians, the wealthy and elite only, and not the masses. When they are on the roads, it's to extort from motorists and harass the masses, while the job of security have largely been taken up by Nigerians on a personal level in the high fences of our homes, the metal burglary proofs on our doors and windows, including the "Aboki" at our gates (for those who have gates), and communally by the vigilante groups that you find allover the country. And in the occasions when these vigilante groups apprehend disturbers of the peace, they often than not get undermined by the police they trust to move justice to the next level. What a shame!


'kovich

OF OKADA RIDERS & POLICEMEN IN BARIGA

It was an Okada rider friend of mine that told me about it last week, even before I saw the visuals on Sahara TV. An Okada (moped taxi) rider was riding his customer and child to their destination in Bariga, in Lagos. While she was alighting, the Okada rider sighted a policeman in mufti (as is their nature, especially when they intend to raid unsuspecting members of the public, justly or unjustly), coming towards him with the aim of "arresting" and milking him of his hard earned money, decided to bolt away, thinking the child behind him had alighted with the mother, only for the woman to begin to shout to him to stop so her child could come down from the bike. Unfortunately, this incident happened around Bariga market, with the crowd that could easily become a lynch mob at the slightest provocation. These, thinking that this was yet another case of kidnapping (especially for ritual purposes) successfully stopped the Okada rider and began to descend on him without hearing his side of the story, nor the womans' (whose child had by now been safely returned to her), whose appeal to them to desist from hitting the man was falling on deaf ears.

THE BEATING OF THE OKADAMAN IN BARIGA CAUGHT ON VIDEO. (SOURCE: SAHARA TV)

Interestingly, the policeman and his colleagues (who had by now joined in the melee) who were responsible for the fiasco in the first place, rather than help situate the matter in its right perspective, even if at the end of the day, they'd arrest the Okadaman and deal with him as they wished, allowed the man to be beaten to near comatose level before the woman with the help of others was able to gain access to the pummeling party, to relate the true side of the story, and they helped take the man to the clinic for treatment. That day Okada riders rode free of police intimidation and extortion in Bariga, because the Divisional Police Officer, without accepting responsibility for the actions of his men or apologizing for it, appeared to have prevailed on his men to sheathe their swords at least for that day, because of the seething anger amongst the populace when the truth of what actually happened was made manifest. In fact the Okadaman and the woman she carried were familiar with each other, and this wasn't the first time he'd be carrying her and her child.


Only a few of the inhabitants of Bariga felt that the coming of the new DPO at the Ilaje Police Station in Bariga, will change the extortionist ways and tendencies of the police in that part of Lagos. At the end of their evil stick are Okada and Tricycle (Keke) riders, sometimes the "Danfo" drivers though they have a strong union with connections with politicians and powerful people in the society that unless for serious criminal cases have become untouchable by the Nigerian police, as long as their palms are frequently greased with "shandy", "wazo" or any other pseudonym for any of Nigeria's currencies that the policemen routine collect at various points in Lagos where legally and illegally position themselves daily come rain or shine. Part of the proceeds from their "day's labour" goes into "deliveries" they make to the bosses in the offices, who assign them to "juicy" spots, like the areas around Bariga market in Lagos (for instance), with the heavy flow of traffic there. Some of it goes into the various "esusu" (like cooperatives) they join, to which they deliver huge sums of money daily, weekly or monthly, amounts that sometimes either equal, or more in multiples of their monthly emoluments, of which when collected eventually a few of them have gone on to build estates, even establish businesses.


It's a known fact that a large percentage of the Okada plying the Bariga route are owned by the policemen posted there, and the riders of Okada not owned by any policeman have to "settle" some policemen frequently, for "protection" in the days they have a falling-out with the colleagues of their "protector"; though a few times these have joined their peers in complicating matters, when their help is sought leaving the Okada riders in deeper shit and despair than they were before calling up their chargers for "protective aid". With these policemen in Bariga there's no gain, just losses, severally they'd carry out raids on the neighbourhoods arresting boys for just about any flimsy reason under the sun. Of course, only the Inspector-General of Police know that "BAIL IS FREE", Nigerians know that the contrary is true, and the amount they collect will make you wonder if police stations haven't become revenue generation centers, not for government, but those men in uniform. That police station in Ilaje, at some point had an ATM within its environ before the immediate past Central Bank governor outlawed the siting of ATMs at locations other than around banks. While that ATM was there though, it was difficult for anyone who had "business" to do at that police station, to claim they had no money for bail.


When it comes to the police, President Buhari's "CHANGE" mantra holds no water. Even the state police commissioners who have been regaling the public with rallies of "Change Begins With Me" by policemen and women under them, know that it's just mere lip service and another money making adventure. Nothing in the extortionist behavior of the police have changed, rather the fees payable have astronomically increased owing to the "recession" in the air, and Nigerians have been left none the better for it. When last year, a policeman lost three of his children to a landslide in Lagos, not a few Nigerians and Lagosians were unsympathetic with the man, when it returns to their consciousness that the man is a member of the Nigerian Police Force, many of those unsympathetic Nigerians had a good reason to feel the way they did.


'kovich



VIDEO CREDIT:
- https://youtu.be/3epMcLz_2fY