Posted by The Punch on
Irate traders and residents of Apo, a village in Abuja, recently set ablaze the Apo Police Station, vehicles and other property belonging to the Police.
Irate traders and residents of Apo, a village in Abuja, recently set ablaze the Apo Police Station, vehicles and other property belonging to the Police. They sent the policemen on duty packing and freed detainees at the station. They were protesting the alleged killing of five people from the village by the Police. Reports said four auto spare-parts dealers from the Apo Mechanic Village and one of their female friends were returning from a night outing when they ran into a Police checkpoint in Wuse in the early hours of the morning.
The traders, who rode in a Peugeot 406 salon car belonging to one of them, were allegedly shot following a misunderstanding they had with the policemen. Two of them reportedly died on the spot, while the Police took custody of the surviving three. One of the survivors managed to send a phone message to a relation of one of those killed concerning their plight. A few hours later the same day, the three survivors were also allegedly shot dead by the Police.
Attempts by men of the Abuja Environmental Protection Board, AEPB, to bury the bodies of the victims in a cemetery near the village sparked the violence, following the identification of the corpses by the traders and residents. A reinforced anti-riot Police team eventually recovered the corpses and quelled the riot. The Police insist that the victims were armed robbers shot during a gun battle. Indeed, one Inspector Suleiman Audu was said to have claimed responsibility for pulling the trigger.
Ohaneze Ndigbo, a Pan-Igbo socio-cultural organisation, as well as other Igbo groups in Abuja, have described the incident as a case of cruel murder of innocent citizens. The Police High Command, on its part, has set up an all-police probe panel, headed by Mr. Mike Okiro, a Deputy Inspector-General, to investigate the matter.
Despite claims by the Police that those shot were armed robbers, as well as their seeming interest in unraveling the truth, there are scores of cases of unlawful killings by the Police in Nigeria that their claim of robbery against the Abuja victims is a hard sell. In October 2003, mayhem was averted in Kaduna when the Police buried 19 corpses in a mass grave in Tundun Wada. Residents mobilized for a violent protest when they discovered that among the 19 corpses were those of their colleagues arrested and detained by the Police during an earlier anti fuel price hike protest in the city. As usual, the Police claimed that the dead were criminals they killed in a gun duel. It took the deployment of soldiers and the personal intervention of the state governor, Alhaji Ahmed Makarfi, to bring the situation under control.
It is a common principle of law that an accused person is deemed innocent until otherwise proven by a competent court. Yet the nation's Police have remained notorious for the reckless killing of innocent citizens and suspects alike, over failed extortion bids, during interrogation, or in Police cells. Endemic corruption, poor training on weapon handling and emotional instability, laziness, inability to do a thorough job, etc., have variously been blamed for the grave vice. The Police also labour spiritedly to cover up their tracks after every sad incident of extra judicial killing. The latest Abuja killings may not be different, especially when all the 'suspected robbers" have been shot dead.
No man can be a judge in his own cause. Therefore, the Police probe comes across as a suspected ruse. For the Okiro panel to have a modicum of integrity, therefore, it should be representative enough, involving independent parties, the media, civil society groups and representatives of Apo village. The panel should sit at a neutral venue and its proceedings made public. Most importantly, the self-confessed inspector who pulled the trigger should be arrested and detained for alleged murder until it is otherwise determined after proper investigation and prosecution. The average Nigerian policeman's disregard for human life is frightening. The Police should rid their ranks of psychiatric patients masquerading as law enforcement agents.