Recent report that a police sergeant, Stephen James shot dead three people in the Ketu area of Lagos for failing to buy him beer exposes all that is wrong with the Nigerian Police Force. The offending policeman said to be under the influence of alcohol had gone to the bar of the hotel where he was deployed and threatened to shoot some of the customers unless they bought him drinks.
His conduct did not go down well with some of the customers who cautioned him to behave responsibly in view of his call of duty. Apparently unhappy with the response of the customers, he laid ambush for them outside the hotel killing three as they made to leave. Among those he killed were two brothers who were the only surviving offspring of their parents. The policeman subsequently shot and killed himself after discovering the gravity of his offence.
And in Enugu State within the same week, another policeman was reported to have shot and killed three people in circumstances that have remained largely untidy. The two incidents are a tip of the iceberg. They also mirror very vividly the sad fate of our citizens in the hands of those paid with the taxpayers’ money to protect them. The list of such unprovoked and senseless killings by trigger happy policemen is endless.
Before now, our people have had to contend with the so-called accidental discharges from policemen at checkpoints. It was largely on account of killings arising from such occurrences that the police hierarchy had to do away with checkpoints along the nation’s highways and major roads.
But whatever gains recorded in human lives as a result of this measure, appear to have come under serious threat from the increasing recourse of policemen to cut down the lives of innocent and defenseless citizens under sundry guises. The rising incidence of policemen killing innocent citizens without provocation has raised questions as to the mental suitability of some of those we place the protection of the society in their care. Take the case of Sergeant James who was deployed to give protection to customers at a hotel. Instead of doing that for which he was engaged, he turned out a calamity to that business premises.
His killing of the two brothers and their friend, as unconscionable and dastardly as it was, also highlights the inadequacies of character checks in the recruitment of policemen. This calls to question the efficacy of the supervisory role of senior police officers under whose command such highly temperamental and seemingly mentally demented policemen function. This conclusion is supported by reports that the said policeman was in the habit of Indian hemp and alcoholism.
Why this man was able to operate that long without his supervisors taking note of his embarrassing conduct has remained largely sloppy. It is also curious that the hotel authorities kept quiet while the policeman carried on with his madness until the worst happened? These issues have been raised to underscore the point that had the hotel done the needful, the lives of those that fell prey to this obviously mentally unstable policeman would have been saved.
This is not the first time the mental balance and suitability of policemen will come under public scrutiny. During the regime of Mike Okiro as the Inspector General of Police, he shocked the nation when he disclosed that 24 top police officers had doubtful mental stability for the job. In this number were two deputy commissioners and one assistant commissioner among others. We were then told that they had been referred to the Police Medical Board for the determination of their suitability. Nothing was heard of the outcome of the investigations by the medical board again.
Some years back also, the Police College in Kaduna had sacked 234 recruits for various offences. Commandant of the college Sanusi Rufai said while some of those sacked were lepers, others had sight problems. There were also those who stabbed their colleagues with knives and habitual hemp smokers as well. These disclosures were a huge shock given that certificate of metal and physical fitness is an irreducible requirement in the recruitment and continued retention of policemen especially given the sensitivity of their jobs.
It became a huge puzzle why such a large number of senior police officers and recruits found themselves into the police without their mental and physical inadequacies detected at the point of entry. That people with such contagious diseases as leprosy could find their ways into the force despite the obvious health risks they pose to others is a sad commentary on police recruitment procedure. Little wonder the rising indiscriminate cases of the killing of helpless citizens by sundry policemen without provocation and under very annoying circumstances.
It is an irony of sorts that Sergeant James killed the only two sons of their parents and their friend for failing to buy him beer in a hotel he is supposed to be maintaining security. Why will he not take laws into his hands when he is in the habit of drinking alcohol and smoking Indian hemp even while in uniform? Someone should have noticed the looming disaster which such conduct posed in the performance of his duty.
It would seem there was dereliction of duty on the part of those under whose command he worked. It is a big puzzle that he was able to carry on that way without either the hotel authorities or his supervisors having some knowledge of the disaster he had become.
More than any other thing else, the incident has brought to the fore the conduct of policemen deployed to individuals and private places for their primary assignment. It is increasingly obvious that the way such policemen conduct themselves has become a big embarrassment to the nation’s security system. Not only do some of them drink while on duty, they shoot indiscriminately at sundry social functions in a way that suggests they can deploy the guns at their disposal to their whims and caprices. Yet, we do know that the bullets they dispense are bought with public funds and ought to be accounted for.
From what we see daily, the procedure for the deployment of policemen to private individuals has been serially abused. At a time the police service does not have enough personnel to carry out its statutory functions, it smacks of monumental abuse for some inconsequential persons to be parading the roads with a retinue of police escorts ostensibly for personal protection. In some parts of the country, the use of police escorts has assumed the character of a status symbol. The fad now is to apply for police protection under sundry reasons. Immediately that is granted, you follow it up by acquiring at least one Toyota Hilux or similar vans fitted with siren. The next day, you hit the roads blowing siren at the sight of which policemen at the check points clear the road for you for quick passage. Once such vehicles are on the roads, nobody bothers whether those blowing the siren are even criminals who use such cover to evade detection.
In a clime replete with the criminally-minded and such sophisticated crimes as armed robbery, kidnapping and terrorism, it is a huge risk to subject the use of the siren to the kind of abuse it has been subjected in some parts of the country. These are some of the areas the authorities should take proactive measures to stem the abuse. If such checks are regularly instituted, the sad fate of the two brothers in the hands of Sergeant James would have been averted.
There are still many of such characters in the police force. The authorities must come out with fool-proof measures to ensure that those on whose shoulders we place the security of our citizens are not only mentally and physically fit, but carry themselves in such a way that command public confidence.
NATION
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