A Lagos-based family is now under the canopy of grief, no thanks to police brutality. Their son, Jamiu Ayoade, 23, was murdered last weekend by the Divisional Police Officer of Ijesa Police Station, Lagos. Mohammed Yakubu, a chief superintendent of police, reportedly singled out Ayoade at his friend’s birthday party and cold-heartedly shot him. The apprentice fashion designer bled to death. Ayoade’s murder is shocking, but it is not a surprise: the police are notorious for human rights abuse and summary execution of innocent citizens. Yakubu should be brought to book to serve the cause of justice.
Ordinarily, the killing was about to be swept under the carpet. The DPO had lied to the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, that police raided the scene of the murder because street gangs – or cult members in local parlance – were fighting. He also lied to the CP that nobody died, and challenged the bereaved family to produce Ayoade’s corpse, which had already been buried.
But after an outcry by the media, civil society organisations and the Lagos State Government latched on to the killing to mount pressure for justice to prevail. This persuaded the Inspector-General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, to step in. The IG’s intervention saved the day as Owoseni, who had swallowed Yakubu’s lies, instituted a discreet investigation, which discovered that Yakubu actually killed Ayoade in cold-blood. The DPO has since been detained. His detention would be scant consolation for the Ayoades if Yakubu is not prosecuted.
There is an inescapable history of police impunity in Nigeria. They deploy disproportionate force against unarmed citizens. Their villainy is characterised by indiscriminate arrests, brutality, torture, extortion and needless shedding of innocent blood. Police regularly boast to suspects that they would kill them and nothing would happen. In truth, police officers are rarely brought to book. This is wrong and is partly because the police have a well-oiled machinery of covering up for their officers who misbehave. This attitude has to change.
Habitually, police murder people extra-judicially. In April, police officers raided a relaxation spot in Ibadan, Oyo State, to carry out arrests. Kola Aderogba, 55, one of those arrested in the raid, was allegedly tortured to death in detention by Special Anti-Robbery Squad operatives because he could not afford to pay the illegal bail toll. SARS officers allegedly robbed an undergraduate of the University of Lagos, Akoka, of his school fees last month in Lagos after accusing him of being a Yahoo Yahoo Boy, a euphemism for an internet fraudster. The victim alleged that two other victims in the same boat with him were made to part with N100,000 each, which they were forced to withdraw through the ATM. How corrupt and wicked!
In the same way, six traders – or the Apo Six – were executed by police officers in Abuja in 2005. Claiming that the traders were armed robbers, police mowed them down in the wee hours in the Apo Legislative Quarters. Two of the officers on trial were sentenced to death earlier this year. A similar fate befell a family – Godwin and Idongesit Ekpo – in September 2015 when they were gunned down by the police in Lagos. The couple, who were returning from church in their tricycle, were killed because they refused to part with bribe at a police checkpoint.
Simply put, the police in Nigeria do not follow the civilised rules of engagement with the public. This is deplorable. The police are quick to parade innocent people to convince the public that they are working. This way, they trample on the rights of innocent citizens. In 2010, there was outrage when the then DPO of Olosan Police Station, Lagos, shot a Somolu resident, Femi Olayiwola, to death. Those with the deceased said they were running to the Onipanu Police Station for refuge after they noticed a car with tinted glasses trailing them on Ikorodu Road. Olayiwola was murdered by those paid to protect him.
Although the intervention of the IG made the CP in Lagos to investigate Ayoade’s killing, there is little to cheer. If at all his action is of any significance, it is the fact that the internal mechanism of supervision and control in the police has broken down. Clearly, the IG’s redemptive step is a ringing indictment of the area commander, the state CP and the Assistant Inspector-General, Zone II for failing to live up to the demands of their offices.
If the IG is serious about giving the police a facelift, he should carry out a shake-up in the force. Even as the nation awaits legal reform and state police, Idris should take administrative steps to decentralise operations of the police. It is unacceptable that a high number of police officers are still guarding private individuals at a critical time like this. Withdrawing these officers and deploying them properly, of course, does not need any constitutional mandate, only the sincerity of the IG. Idris should, therefore, do this without delay.
The police are often primitive in their approach to policing, aggressive and seemingly ill-trained. A simple device attached to officers would have recorded all that transpired during the Ayoade killing. Going forward, the police require modern technology to function efficiently. Police in the United Kingdom utilise surveillance technology, including CCTV cameras, body-worn videos or smart cameras and number plate recognition systems as critical tools to fight crime. There were 5.9 million CCTV cameras in Britain as of 2013, said the British Security Industry Association, which aid police operations. With this, officers are not likely to step out of line in dealing with the public.
We impress it on the civil society and the LASG to see the case to a logical conclusion, and ensure justice and compensation for the Ayoades. The CSOs should reawaken the consciousness of the people about their rights. The killing is a wake-up call for the docile state lawmakers and National Assembly members; they should play their part. Their constituents should pressure them until they have done the needful in the Ayoade tragedy.
