Editorial
Although the catchphrase of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) is that ‘the police is your friend’, most Nigerians take this claim,understandably, with a pinch of salt.
Indeed, it is no exaggeration to say that a sizable number of Nigerians perceive the police as public enemy number one.
The outrage expressed by members of her community when a policewoman was shot dead by a fellow policeman on April 23, in Ekena town in Obio/Akpor Local Government Area of Rivers State was thus most unusual.
Given the acts of brutality meted out daily to members of the public by some policemen and women across the country, including unlawful arrests and detention, torture and extra-judicial killings of innocent Nigerians, the tendency is for most people to be completely indifferent when misfortune befalls any member of the force.
It was however a completely different story in the case of W/Seargent Lovendar Elekwachi, when she fell victim to the fatal gunshot of a trigger-happy colleague, Seargent Bitrus Osaiah, in the tragic incident. Clips on television showed members of the community where she worked as a traffic controlling officer lamenting her death and extolling her virtues.
The circumstances surrounding her death showed Lovendar’s qualities as an unusual policewoman. She was reportedly on her traffic control duties on the fateful day and had only gone out of her way to try to prevent members of the Rivers State Task Force Team from destroying goods and properties of some traders all in the name of enforcing the restriction on movement imposed by the state government to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
It was in the process that she was hit by the bullet that ended her life. She was mistakenly struck as the shot was said to have been actually targeted at another person.
That, of course, cannot be an excuse. Well-trained and professional police officers and men have no business killing anybody extra-judicially.
It is thus heartwarming that the Rivers State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Joseph Muka, has unequivocally declared that “There is no satisfactory explanation from the man who did the shooting.
He has been arrested, disarmed and he is undergoing orderly room trial right now. He may likely be dismissed today and charged to court tomorrow”.
The case should be treated with the requisite dispatch to ensure that justice is speedily done. This incident brings to the fore, once again, the question of the suitability of many officers and men of the Nigerian police to bear arms.
If a professional colleague can be so cavalierly gunned to death by a trigger-happy policeman, is it any wonder that the lives of civilians are all too often endangered by some of our policemen?
These incidents of criminal police killings happen too frequently and suggest that the police have serious problems, both with the attitude of their members in the discharge of their duties, as well as the mental health of many of those to whom the grave responsibility of bearing arms are entrusted.
Urgent remedies must be found by the police authorities in terms of inculcating a higher sense of responsibility and discipline at the individual and institutional levels.
For the late W/Seargent Elekwachi, the story should not end with just bringing her killer to book. Her family should be reasonably compensated, at least to serve as an inspiration for other policemen and women to emulate her good example.
Not only did the late policewoman die in the course of her duties in Rivers State, she also hailed from Ozuzu in Etehe Local Government Area of the state. We call on the Rivers State government to also offer succour to her family.
Leave a Reply