USA Africa Dialogue Series - Dismissed killer cop and matters arising

Dismissed killer cop and matters arising

KAYODE KETEFE

And the killer cop was posthumously dismissed, yes that was the news! The killer cop a, trigger-happy, drunken mobile policeman, Stephen James, attached to Mopol 22, Oduduwa, GRA, Ikeja, had, on Boxing Day last year, shot dead three innocent persons, which included twin brothers, in an hotel in Ketu Alapere area.
The twin brothers, Taiwo and Kehinde Oyesunle and their friend, known simply as Jeje, were in their 30s before they were cut down by the inebriated cop who later killed in himself when the effect of the alcohol he had lavishly ingested wore off.
The offence of the victims was that they had refused to buy alcohol for the cop who was reported to have earlier blackmailed customers in the hotel into buying drinks for him or risked being shot!
The killer policeman had reportedly abandoned his primary duty post at First Bank of Nigeria Plc, Alapere Branch, and went to the hotel to be harassing customers.
In swift response, the Lagos State Police Command, through the Provost Department of the Mopol 22 Squadron, claimed it had posthumously tried the police officer, found him guilty and dismissed him from the Force. The effect of the dismissal being that the relatives and dependants of the deceased police officer would not get any terminal benefits from the Police establishment.
In spite of swift reaction of the police to this sad development, not many people were impressed. The cases of people being slain in their prime by the so-called law enforcement agents are just too many, while many rational minds are asking the basic question whether nothing could be done to prevent incidents like this rather than having post-incident knee-jack responses by the authorities.
In Rivers State recently, a court sentenced a policeman, Inspector Samuel Timothy , to death by hanging for killing one Onyekachi Nwasouba.
Nwasuoba, a graduate of chemistry, Nwasouba was forced by unemployment into the production and distribution of sachet water, but had his life terminated by the convict who led a patrol team and thought he had the right to execute any person he suspected as a shady character.
Still fresh in the memory is also the case of Mr. Godwin Ekpo, a tricycle operator who was shot along with his his wife simply because he refused to give a policeman a bribe of N2,000!
Ekpo and his wife together with their four children were returning from church on a Sunday in Lagos when the unfortunate incident occurred, while Ekpo survived, his wife, a nursing mother, died.
One could go on and on with examples like these. Nigerians are simply tired of incessant killings of this nature by the very people who are supposed to be their protectors. Why should we be recording killings by the law enforcement authorities on regular basis?
Law is about orderliness; it is about fostering harmonious coexistence in the society and ensuring peace to enable people engage in their diverse socio-economic and other activities of without let or hindrance.
The police authorities have a way of making great show of dismissing the culprits of embarrassing affairs like the ones recorded above and they are always not loth to make scapegoats of shameless officers for dragging the image of the police in the mud.
But every Nigerian, of course knows reckless killings, bribe-taking and corruption by the police is a daily phenomenon and that only those whose officers whose acts are publicized with attendant public portage and scandal only get punished.
People are of the opinion that except in publicised cases that might cause embarrassment for the institution, the police rarely invokes the big stick against their own officers, therefore making them to grow bold, unconscionable and well-enmeshed in unprofessional and callous practices.
However, suspending a police officer, jailing him or worse still, posthumously dismissing him can do very little in curbing this rampant senseless killings of innocent Nigerians.
The bottom-line is that the Nigeria police are reeling under the deadweight of ineptitude, inefficiency, under-funding, misconception of roles and corruption.
What many Nigerians would be happy to see is the culture shift of the police at the institutional level. The underlying fundamentals that predispose the police institution to corruption and aberrant behaviourism need to be addressed rather than occasional sacrificing of exposed officers and men.
The police authorities also need to ascertain the mental health and psychological constitution of their personnel before they entrust them with firearms and ammunition.
If the internal cleansing mechanism is really efficient, bad officers would be gradually weeded out of the force.
We must also ensure adequate manpower training to ensure policing is a service rather than a liability to the country; the operational philosophy of the police needs to be redefined. Not a few of police personnel think their uniforms merely confer privileges on them to exploit, subjugate and extort from or worse still, kill at will "the bloody civilians"

Ketefe may be followed on twitter@Ketesco

--
Listserv moderated by Toyin Falola, University of Texas at Austin
To post to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com
To subscribe to this group, send an email to USAAfricaDialogue+subscribe@googlegroups.com
Current archives at http://groups.google.com/group/USAAfricaDialogue
Early archives at http://www.utexas.edu/conferences/africa/ads/index.html
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "USA Africa Dialogue Series" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to usaafricadialogue+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.