POLICING is a tough job. It is not made easy by the fact that people like to cover up things. In doing so, they tell lies. Our elders are wont to say that he who lies will steal. If lying is the root of stealing what that means is that we are all criminals because there is hardly anyone who has not told one lie or the other before. To get a liar may be difficult because it is not written on the face. But the police try all the same to decipher the truth in a case.
In some cases, they hit the bull’s eye, in others, they are wide of the mark. But the margin of error is expected to be minus zero. This is to say that they are not expected to make any mistake at all because it could be costly when that happens. As Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Abubakar Mohammed Adamu bears the whole weight of the organisation on his shoulders. The first question you should ask yourself, sir, is how you can discharge your responsibility and leave a worthy legacy behind.
The killing of innocent people through the stray bullets of your men has become worrisome. The police, more than any other arm bearing organisation, are expected to be more careful with their guns. Unfortunately, the reverse is the case. Policemen seem to take delight in shooting people at the least provocation.
Last Sunday, it happened again in Lagos when Citizen Kolade Johnson, who left his home to watch a football match at a nearby viewing centre, was hit by stray bullet. His family says he was shot dead. Some operatives of the Special Anti-Cultism Squad (SACS) were said to have stormed Olu Aboderin Street, Onipetesi near Ikeja to arrest a suspected cultist. On their way out, they saw a man in dreadlocks with a woman and stopped.
They reportedly accosted the man and ordered him to join enter their vehicle. Being a known face in the neighbourhood, people immediately gathered to stop the police from taking him away. It will be easy to accuse those people of obstructing the police from doing their job. Is that really the case? Since they are not zombies, it will not be right for the citizens to keep quiet when they see the police trampling on others’ right.
The danger in keeping silent in such a situation is that nobody will be safe in the face of police tyranny. You must stop police impunity in your own time. I am not against the police arresting offenders, but it must be done in accordance with the law. What happened in Onipetesi on Sunday was barbaric. It was the height of abuse of power. Is it an offence to wear dreadlocks? Which law says that those who wear dreadlocks are cultists? Can a cultist be identified by the make of his hair? We should not forget that there are people born with dreadlocks. They are referred to as Dada in some culture. There are also prophets who wear dreadlocks. Will these people be tagged cultists and arrested by your men on the road?
By their training, the police should not be hasty in judging people, but the SACS operatives did not follow this age-long practice on Sunday. Seeing the bind they put themselves, they resorted to shooting their way out and in the process, the late Johnson, who was watching the scene from afar, was hit. The culprits – Inspector Olalekan Ogunyemi and Sergeant Godwin Orji – have faced internal disciplinary action, we are told. They are likely to be prosecuted too.
But, that will not be the first time that policemen who killed people will be made to face orderly room trial or be charged to court. Some were tried and sentenced to death in the past. Yet, these measures have not served as deterrence. As IGP, the solution to this problem lies in your hands. What is it that makes our policemen bay for blood when soldiers who are trained to kill do not misuse their weapons? If you can identify that, you will be on your way to solving the problem.
May God grant the Johnson family the fortitude to bear this irreparable loss.
The cursed road
THOSE living around the Lagos – Ibadan Expressway corridor dread one thing most – the gridlock which grounds traffic on both sides of the road every now and then. It happened again on Tuesday when a fuel tanker spilled its content at Ibafo around 9.30 am. From then till early yesterday (5.28 am) when I started writing this, the gridlock still stretched all the way from Ibafo to the Long Bridge and beyond for outbound Lagos motorists. It was the same on the other side of the road as inbound Lagos motorists were caught in the traffic jam from the Sagamu Interchange to Ibafo. A motorist, who called Lagos Traffic Radio around 5.10 am, said it took him three hours to drive from the interchange to Lotto, which is around the Redemption Camp, a journey which ordinarily should not take 10 minutes. Many, who slept in their offices, like me, were calling the station that early to find out if they could dash home, change and return to work. I immediately perished that thought when the duty announcer advised against such move – at least as at that hour.
The traffic situation became compounded about three years ago when Julius Berger started the rehabilitation of the road. All pleas to Julius Berger to provide an alternative route have, so far, fallen on deaf ears. Motorists have been suffering as it continues to waste time in diligently executing the job. The cheek of it is that, the authorities do not see anything wrong in what Julius Berger is doing. Can the firm act like this in its home country? It cannot. For how long will motorists suffer for the tardiness of Julius Berger? Reynolds Construction Company (RCC), which is handling the Sagamu – Ibadan end of the road, has been up and doing, giving motorists no stress at all in its area of operation. Why can’t Julius Berger just do the same?
Leave a Reply