'Across the country, scarcely a day passes without a trigger-happy, belligerent policeman brutalising, robbing, maiming, or extorting an innocent member of the public who has the misfortune of crossing their path,' writes EnoAbasi_Sunday. NigeriaPolice
These and many more obscene lines have become part of the refrain that some officers and men of the Nigeria Police Force bandy when they get berserk and try to ride roughshod over the citizens that they are supposed to protect.
It is also commonplace to see hordes of policemen in rag-tag garbs squeezed into commercial buses chasing after suspects, or swooping on suspects in black spots without proper identification. Besides the triple homicide committed by Vandi, many are still horrified by the massive scale of human rights violations masterminded by policemen even though the National Human Rights Commission had gone around the country training cops on human rights best practices and how to mainstream human rights in law enforcement operations.
By the time the Federal Government found the courage to disband the SARS on October 11, 2020, a large number of policemen and civilians had been killed, while some public and private structures, including iconic ones, had been razed down. Apart from the 34-year-old bus driver, Olalekan Okanlawon, whom the police extorted N50, 000 cash from, his friend, Adeoye Adebukunola. So also was their female company, Ibukunoluwa Oladele, who was also an officer when the policemen suspected that she was filming the incident.
Still, on October 13, the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, said that one Curtis Jack, who was accused of robbing a man and his brother of $5, 000 and N1.3m in Lagos, was equally fired from service. The deceased, Samuel Ugor and his assailant were from the SPU Base 15, Anambra State, both were attached to the lawmaker representing Isiala Ngwa South Constituency in the Abia House of Assembly, Ginger Onwusibe.
Also in December, a police inspector, Abu Matthew, allegedly stormed the Isuaniocha community in Awka North Local Council of Anambra State, killing an unarmed resident, Okafor Sunday Johnson. In Vandi’s first appearance before a Yaba Chief Magistrate’s Court, last Friday, he was remanded in the Ikoyi Correctional Centre till January 30, 2023, pending advice on the case from the Office of the Lagos State Directorate of Public Prosecutions .
Force spokesperson, CSP Adejobi in a series of tweets, on Friday evening, in response to an agitated social media user who asked when the killer cop would be executed, said: “Well, I don’t know, the court will tell us. This procedure or CJS applies to all Nigerians, not only the police, or law enforcement agents. Whoever kills will be subjected to trial, and he will be killed.
“The average Nigerian’s attitude towards an unarmed police officer is condescending, we often forget that they could also feel stressed or weighed down. “Why junior officers? They most likely have a higher workload; are more affected by occupational stress, and have less tolerance for the poor working conditions that they find themselves in.”CLINICAL psychologist, Samuel Atilola, Like Williams believes that a connection exists between environment and behaviour. “However, this connection is not deterministic as it is quite obvious that people still behave differently even in the same environment.
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