Impunity: Culture of law enforcements agencies in Nigeria · Every facet groans under sledgehammer of lawlessness KAYODE KETEFE One of the social scourges militating against good quality of life and pursuit of happiness of Nigerians is the culture of impunity. This problem rocks almost all law enforcements agencies and institutions in the country and it induces a widespread feeling of insecurity and despair. Impunity may be defined as exemption of breakers of law from punishment; it is often exemplified by failure to bring perpetrators of human rights violations (especially state agents and powerful individuals) to justice leading to a denial of the victims' right to justice and redress. Examples of culture of anarchy, lawlessness and impunity are not only plenty, they have been so entrenched in the system that people no longer see them as strange, having accepted them as normal part of daily lives. We usually have cases of Police taking laws into their hands by beating torturing and engaging in extra-judicial killings. Many accidents have been caused at ubiquitous police posts mounted on all the major and even minor roads as a result of officers forcefully demanding bribes from motorists. What about illegal detention and illicit demand of money to grant administrative bail? The disturbing culture is not limited to the police alone but all agencies of government. The operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission have on many occasions been accused of overzealousness, human rights abuses and usage of unconventional methods of investigation and prosecution. The Nigerian Drug Law Enforcement Agency recently came under the sledge hammer of severe criticisms over the saga of the popular comedian, Babatunde Omidina, aka, Baba Suwe whom the agency arrested over alleged drug trafficking. The comedian was being indefinitely detained by the NDLEA till Baba Suwe was able to get a succour from the court which ordered his release. The N100 million naira suit filed by the embattled comic actor is pending in court- which necessitates minimal comment on this issue as at the moment. Even terrorist groups like Boko Haram, ritual killers and other shady characters do carry out endless rampage on innocent citizens-assured they would not be reached by the so-called long arms of the law. In its 2011 Report on Nigeria, a globally acclaimed non-governmental organisation in the area of abuse of human rights, Human Rights Watch, paints this unsavoury image of culture of impunity in law enforcement in the country: "Members of the Nigeria Police Force were widely implicated in the extortion of money and the arbitrary arrest and torture of criminal suspects and others. They solicited bribes from victims of crimes to initiate investigations, and from suspects to drop investigations. "They were also implicated in numerous extrajudicial killings of persons in custody. Meanwhile senior police officials embezzle and mismanage funds intended for basic police operations. "They also enforce a perverse system of "returns," in which rank-and-file officers pay a share of the money extorted from the public up the chain of command." On the issue of political will to stop corruption, the report also says. "The government lacked the will to reform the police force and hold officers accountable for these and other serious abuses. "Similarly, the government has still not held members of the police and military accountable for their unlawful 2008 killing of more than 130 people during sectarian violence in Jos, or for the 2001 massacre by the military of more than 200 people in Benue State, and the military's complete destruction of the town of Odi, Bayelsa State, in 1999." In recent investigations by the National Mirror Newspaper, it was revealed that police stations in the country collect bribes from most if not all arrested persons on suspicions of crime. Yet bail is meant to be free as it relates to the constitutional rights of the detained persons. Thus bail has been commercialised. The sensational cases like that of Miss Uzoma Okere who was assaulted by naval ratings in open street in Lagos abound in Nigeria with only a few of them grabbing headlines while fewer still end up being redressed. It will be recalled that on November 5, 2008, four naval ratings descended on Miss Okere, beat her up and strip her half-naked on the alleged grounds that she was delaying them in traffic on Muri Okunola Street, Victoria Island, Lagos while on the convoy of the Rear Admiral Harry Arogundade who did nothing to stop the abuse. A judge of the Lagos State State High Court, Justice Opeyemi Oke in February 2010 awarded Miss Okere damages of N100 million. But it is a common knowledge that the redress obtained in Okere's case was a flash in the frying pan against the background of impunity that reigns in the land. A judge of the Federal High Court, Justice James Tsoho recently awarded a sum of N500, 000 to the former Managing Director of AfriBank (Now MainStreet Bank), Mr. Sebsatine Adigwe, as damages over his illegal detention by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission. The court, which condemned the EFCC for not respecting the fundamental rights of Adigwe, held that the conduct of the anti-graft agency amounted to violation of the banker's right not to be illegally detained under the 1999 Constitution. It would be recalled that Adigwe who is facing a trial at the Federal High Court and had been released on bail by the court was re-arrested on May 3, 2011 by the EFCC and detained for the purpose of re-arraignment before a Lagos High Court in Ikeja. Adiwge had therefore filed a fundamental human right suit against the EFCC to contend his illegal detention. In his judgment, Justice James Tsoho held that the arrest of Adigwe at a time he was enjoying a bail granted by the court was wrong and amounted to wanton violation of his rights. Just last Wednesday, another judge of the same Federal High Court, Justice Okechukwu Okeke, while speaking against the attitude of the law enforcement agents in Nigeria of fostering impunity, narrated a rather interesting story of his personal experience which underscored indiscretion of disobeying court orders. It was during the proceedings in the suit instituted by the Nigerian Police Force against a Managing Director of Ecobank Mrs. Tosin Lawal and her husband Michael Lawal. The judge said "Some years ago, a matter came up in my court involving a very senior retired military officers. Before this man retired he held a powerful position in the upper hierarchy of the army at a time when court orders were flagrantly disobeyed. Then it happened that after he left office some other powerful people took over a property belonging to this man which his was using a private school. The retired officer's lawyer stated in the supporting affidavit that his client was "an ordinary Nigerian" who was being made a victim by the powers-that be. When I read the affidavit, I turned to the retired Lt-General and asked him "Ordinary Nigerian! When you were a member of the Armed Force Ruling Council how many court judgments did you obey" The whole audience in the courtroom dissolved into the laughter and although the judge did not conclude story to show how he decided the matter, he had succeeded in passing his message across. But another interesting thing happened at that court during the same proceedings which seems to highlight the lack of good working relationship and synergy between law enforcement agencies in Nigeria. When justice Okeke inquired into why the police failed to bring the 1st accused, Tosin, to court, The police lawyer in the suit, Mr. Nosa Watson, said that the police could not bring her to court because she was now in the custody of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (upon a petition filed by the bank). He further stressed that the EFCC would not release the accused to come and appear in court to face the trial even if the police had contacted them to release her! Watson then prayed the judge to issue an order which the police would take to the EFCC to persuade it to release the accused for the trial in the charge filed by the police. The lawyer to the accused persons, Mr. Tayo Oyetibo SAN, berated the apparent lack of coordination between the police and the EFCC, stressing that the he could not understand why numerous law enforcement agents in Nigeria should be working at cross purposes. Oyetibo said "Every agency does what it likes and this has kept causing anguished to innocent Nigerians." He added that the first accused person, Tosin in case had been detained without bail for about 45 days by the EFCC after the police had granted her administrative bail. Yet the police filed a charge against her and the EFCC would not release her to face the trial. Justice Okeke then ordered that the police should liaise with the EFCC and produced Tosin in court within the next 48 hours. To highlight the scope of the pervasive culture of misuse of power by the Nigerian law enforcement agents, two national dailies last Wednesday published pictures of two cases of these agents taking law into their hands by subjecting arrested persons to the torture and indignity of physical beating on the streets. The first was a picture showing the officials of Abuja Environmental Protection Board beating up a bus conductor in the process of arrest in Abuja which was published on page on page 49 of the National Mirror newspaper. On the same day, the Punch newspaper published yet another picture of rights violation on its very front page with a picture showing some gun-toting officers of Nigerian Police brutalising a member of the National Union of Roads Transport Workers in Sango-Ota, Ogun State. The said two separate events had taken place on Tuesday and were published in the said papers on Wednesday. Only last Tuesday, no less a personality than the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Dahiru Musdapher, also made reference to impunity in the nation's administration of justice when he lambasted the use of plea bargaining procedure as an illegal ploy being used to shield corrupt politicians who stole huge public funds from being adequately punished for their felonies. Speaking through his representative, Justice Sylvester Nguta, at the at the opening session of the 5th Annual Section of Legal Practice (SLP) of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) in Abuja, Musdapher said, "The guilty are afraid and when a man who has abused the public trust reposed in him feels the heat of approaching long arm of the law, he rushes to a judge with flexible conscience who makes him untouchable to the law enforcements," Writing a few days ago, a professor of Philosophy in University of Lagos, Ndubuisi Fry, who is also a lawyer, gave this succinct description of the problem of impunity of the law enforcement agents, "The first law in heaven they say is order. And how you gauge a functional and effective state is with the level of law and order in place. The police force is gradually becoming obsolete and anachronistic. It has unwittingly diminished their relevance in security matters to the barest minimum. How do you explain the state of affairs where a policeman in his uniform engages an okada or danfo driver in a fist- cuff, just to collect bribe. "This goes on regularly and it is done with impunity." In his view a Lagos-based lawyer and human rights activist, Mr. Oladele Kazeem, took a panoramic view of the problem of lawlessness and impunity in Nigeria. He said "All major institutions of governments in this land believes it is a law unto itself and the officers seem themselves as some sorts of mini gods. This is the kind of mentality that promotes impunity culture. "Our law enforcement agents need a wholesome re-orientation that will enable them to see the public office as an avenue to serve the people rather than a means of personal aggrandisement" Speaking in similar vein, the Executive Director of Women Aid Collective (WACOL) and a lecturer at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Dr. Joy Ezeilo, lamented the incidence of impunity in the land. Speaking from the perspective of women rights violation, Ezeilo said "It is very unfortunate that rape which is punishable with a life imprisonment could be handled by the authorities with levity and treated as less a crime by the law enforcement agents. Why should government and all people not condemn this crime against humanity in its entirety as violation of women's human rights?" There is certainly some consensus among the stakeholders that Nigeria has a lot to do to check the hitherto intractable problems of impunity in the land. They all agreed that the best way to begin is to evolve the political will to stop impunity.
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