•It’s time to stop frequent military/police clashes
It could have passed off simply as a case of ‘two fighting’ but for the institutions involved – the army and the police. At the end of it all, one soldier and four policemen were killed. According to report, the incident happened on Sunday when the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in charge of Zuru Local Government Council of Kebbi State was returning from an outing, only to be overtaken by a fast-driven car in a reckless manner.
This provoked the police officer who as a matter of duty, caught up with the car and blocked it. It turned out that the occupants of the car were soldiers from the 242 Light Tank Battalion of the Nigerian Army in the town. The soldiers reportedly gave him a thorough beating; notwithstanding the fact that they knew he was a police officer.
This naturally drew the anger of two other policemen who were on guard duty at one of the banks nearby. One of them reportedly fired a shot that hit and killed one of the soldiers. The fence-mending trip of the police area commander to the commanding officer of the battalion led to the killing of the four policemen that went with him by some angry soldiers, apparently on revenge mission.
We deplore the lack of restraints on both sides. Ordinarily, one may be tempted to say it serves both the police and army right because the attitude of both arms is indeed deplorable. They molest those they regard as ‘bloody civilians’. But then, we cannot sanction a situation where uniform men would capitalise on the force of arms they bear to terrorise either themselves or any other law-abiding citizen. But it is particularly worrisome that clashes between the soldiers and policemen are becoming too frequent.
In December, last year, soldiers of the 31 Artillery Brigade, Minna, reportedly invaded Minna Police Station in Niger State, molested the DPO and others over an alleged molestation of a soldier by policemen on patrol duty. The Brigade denied that any such thing happened. In Ibadan, Oyo State, police and army officers engaged themselves in a shoot-out about a year ago. The army personnel were reacting to the attack on one of their men at Mokola by some policemen, following an assault on a female police. A similar clash in 2005 in Lagos left four dead and 60 charred vehicles in its wake, while many police buildings in the Area ‘C’ Command of the Police Force, at Surulere, Lagos, were razed.
The question begging for answer in all these is: whither the esprit de corps which normally should exist among the two institutions? However, since neither the military nor the police seems ready to bring this about, especially as the many panels set up to investigate some of the past clashes have failed to check the unfortunate trend, it is the government’s duty to ensure that each does not go beyond its bounds. Soldiers must be told in clear terms that their uniform is not a license to break the law while policemen too should be civil in their enforcement of the law.
Many years ago, soldiers were hardly seen in public in the country; these days, they are involved in nearly all cases that the police should ordinarily handle, often on government’s invitation. The frequent clashes they are having with the police are probably part of the result of that role conflict. Yet, there should be no rivalry between soldiers and the police as the constitution is clear on what their respective roles are. It appears both arms of the force have been drained of the discipline that comes with their strict professional trainings.
A society where might is right can never progress. So, we call on the authorities to investigate the Kebbi incident. We cannot expect a stop to these sad occurrences until scapegoats are made – and seen to be made – of those responsible. Both the soldiers and the police must know the lesson in subordination to democratic institutions.
