In choosing the above title, I had to be extra careful, to save my scalp, considering the recent experience of the gifted columnist, Sam Omatseye, the Chairman of the Editorial Board of this paper, when he wrote a piece titled Obi-tuary, poking fun at the presidential candidacy of Mr Peter Obi (Okwute) of the Labour Party. The piece drew the umbrage of those who call themselves Obidients, some of whom are intolerant of opposing views.
A few acquaintances who know that I am on the editorial board that Sam chairs, sought to draw my blood in lieu of Sam’s, and my attempt to explain the write-up as an exercise of poetic licence, was dismissed in a most derisive and scurrilous language. For whatever it is worth, having worked with Sam on The Nation newspaper’s editorial board for about 15 years, I do not agree that Sam is afflicted with Igbophobia. He is also not a closet irredentist, but perhaps a rambunctious literary enthusiast.
But this piece is not about Sam. It is about the profound statement by the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Usman Baba that: “Any policeman holding a gun and extorting people on the road is no different from an armed robber and we cannot be glorified armed robbers.” The IGP made the statement at the Police Headquarters in Gombe State. He noted that discipline is the bedrock of policing, and warned that the service will not condone corruption and indiscipline.
The IGP commended policemen who are working hard to ensure security in Gombe State and other parts of the country. He noted that: “Discipline is the bedrock of the police and the bedrock of other organisations; that is why your hand is up when you see someone higher shoulder-wise not age. I’m not the oldest policeman here but I’m the number one policeman.” This columnist wishes that the admonition of the IGP should be carved on marble and placed in every police station.
No doubt, the gravest undoing of the Nigeria Police is extortion, most times at gunpoint. The extortion happens at roadblocks on the highways, within cities, in unmarked buses, in private offices, and even in police stations.
Everywhere the opportunity presents itself, the policemen referred to by Usman Baba, use the gun assigned to protect the citizens to coerce the same citizens to part with a valuable. The unfortunate misapplication of the official arms, for personal criminal aggrandisement is at the root of the public repulsion for police.
So, if IGP Usman Baba can make the police have a change of attitude, as to the use of the arms in their possession, then he would leave a great legacy. The challenge though is how he can make his men turn over a new leaf, when a substantial number of them joined the police because of the opportunity to extort. Indeed, many of those clamouring to join the police would not, if the IGP can stop extortion.
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Even many of those who are already in the police would leave if armed robbery, sorry armed extortion, is effectively banned by the IGP. How to make the serving officers turn over a new leaf, would be a big problem for the IGP, considering that such criminal benefit is already ingrained in them. It is like wishing that the present government can be encouraged to stop asking the Central Bank to print more money for their use, under duplicitous ways and means.
As an African adage says, “One does not learn how to use the left hand at old age.” But again, for whatever it is worth, let us help the IGP educate his men that what some of them have been doing with relish is actually no different from armed robbery. According to Section 401 of the Criminal Code: “Any person who steals anything, and, at or immediately before or immediately after the time of stealing it, uses or threatens to use actual violence to any person or property in order to obtain or retain the thing stolen or to prevent or overcome resistance to its being stolen or retained, is said to be guilty of robbery.”
According to Section 1 of the Robbery and Firearms Act, the offence of robbery is punishable with imprisonment for not less than 21 years. Of note, there is a difference between the offence of robbery and armed robbery. Robbery is the use of violence immediately before or after the theft, but armed robbery is the use of specific weapons as provided by the law. According to S. 1(2) of the Robbery and Firearms Act, armed robbery would occur “if the accused, while carrying out robbery, was armed with a firearm or any other offensive weapon or was in company with a person so armed.”
So, armed robbery can be referred to as aggravated robbery. The punishment for armed robbery is a sentence of death, either by hanging or firing squad, as may be determined by the governor of a state. In the judgment of the Supreme Court in the case of Demo Oseni vs The State, delivered on Friday, the 17th of February, 2012, the apex court per Olukayode Ariwoola, JSC, enunciated the ingredients of armed robbery as follows: that there was a robbery; that the robbery was an armed robbery; and that the accused person was the robber.
In the above case, the accused person in his statement said: “I am not an Armed Robber. I only decided to kill because of his evil deeds.” The Supreme Court in a unanimous judgment convicted the accused person based on his confessional statement, and compelling circumstantial evidence, despite the efforts of his counsel at the appeal court to make the court discountenance same. It is important to note that despite the opening remarks of the accused that he was not an armed robber, and had killed for other motives, the courts went ahead to convict him.
Such a claim and disposition can be juxtaposed with the intention of the police on the highways. Many of them would claim that they are on the highways to ensure the safety of travellers. Of course, they would rightly claim that they are not armed robbers, by the mere fact that they are in police uniform and authorised to do the lawful acts they are engaged in. But would such lawfulness cover their misdeeds, as to when they rob people while carrying arms, or even using it to effect such nefarious acts?
If IGP Usman Baba can take steps to weed out extortionists, who are no better than armed robbers on the highway, the police would become a better and friendlier organisation, for the good of all Nigerians.