LAST Sunday’s brutal killing of the Oyesunle twins, Taiwo and Kehinde and their friend, Adesanya Adegoke in Ketu, Lagos by a drunken policeman, Sergeant Stephen James, was another evidence of our scant regard for life.
The Oyesunles had encountered Sergeant James in a pub in Ketu, and clearly there was an exchange between the trio and the equally deceased Policeman. An account said in a drunken rage over an attempt to restrain him,Sergeant James shot the trio to death for their audacity in challenging him. James who could not live with what he did also shot himself.
The incident has undoubtedly sickened many Nigerians who in the past have seen drunken and mentally unbalanced security officers misuse arms, procured with public fund.
If the general public is aghast at the development, the feeling of the family members of the victims could well be imagined. Particularly distressing is the condition of the mother of the Oysesunle twins, Madam Beatrice Oyesunle who it seemed, had been dependent on her only two sons.
In the light of the latest development, we are worried over the conduct in public of gun wielding policemen considering the fact that nothing was heard from the police high command when recent cases of drunken policemen were mentioned in the Lagos area.
Some of the recent cases include, the case of a heavily drunk policeman who molested two female food vendors in Obalende on April 18, 2014, because they did not offer him what he wanted.
Also, early in the morning of March 5, 2015, a tipsy policeman was spotted at Cele Bus-Stop in Surulere in a state of drunken stupor.
On August 7, 2015, in the Amuwo Odofin area of Lagos, a heavily drunk and armed policeman turned himself into a spectacle.
In the light of the above, the conditions under which the nation’s security forces bear their arms need to be re-examined, to wit, a re-examination of their mental state.
Such a review should also include making superior officers bear some measure of responsibility for the actions of their subordinate officers that carry arms.
The developments also call for a reappraisal of the curriculum of the police training colleges.
Indeed, the police authorities need to reassure the public that the very men and women who are delegated to protect them do not become agents of death.
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