By Emeka Omeihe
Protests in Sagamu, Ogun State over the death of Remo Stars footballer, Kazeem Tiyamiu are clear indications of the level of anger of the people with the circumstance of that incident. But the protests were also poorly managed resulting to further deaths that exposed the inadequacies of our security agencies to professionally manage civil unrest.
Even as claims on the number of those who died during the demonstrations vary, it remains a fact that many others were injured. It is a curious irony that in trying to control the emotions arising from the death of the footballer, we ended up losing more lives. That says something about us as a people. More so, those entrusted with the onerous responsibility of protecting lives and property. It is also a vivid measure of the overall value we place on human lives.
And what is the cause of all this? Kazeem and his friend had stopped over at Sagamu to buy engine oil for his car. But while he was away, some policemen of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad approached the car and on seeing the lone passenger asked for the owner of the car. They were told that he went to buy something. On his return, the SARS operatives began to interrogate Kazeem and his friend, took their phones and bundled the former into their waiting vehicle while another policeman drove his car carrying the latter.
But somewhere along the expressway, something strange happened. The police claimed Kazeem jumped out of their vehicle and in a bid to escape arrest was crushed by an oncoming vehicle. His friend coming behind had a different story to tell. According to him, the police pushed him out of their vehicle only for him to be crushed by an oncoming vehicle. Such is the story of how the poor lad ended his life very abruptly and in very agonizing circumstance. How Kazeem, arrested with his friend and his car, could attempt to escape in the manner claimed by the police remains a mystery.
The account of how he was rushed to the hospital is somehow cloudy. But the impression one gets is that he was put into his car by the police and driven to the hospital as the police vehicle somewhere along the line vamoosed into the thin air. This dimension of the story is corroborated by the reported attempt by the policeman that drove his car to the hospital to flee on seeing that his colleagues were nowhere to be found. There was a video footage of some sympathizers including the hospital staff holding him as he attempted to flee the scene.
That was just the account of the incident; a chilling story of how such a prospective young man was sent to his early grave through acts of omission or commission by those paid to protect him. It is not clear what offence the SARS operatives arrested him for that warranted bundling him the way they did.
But from their conduct including seizure of their phones, it is probable they were screening them for cybercrime. In local parlance, they may have suspected them as ‘Yahoo boys’ especially given their ages, dressing and the brand of car they were driving. If that is the case, how does that fit into the mandate of the SARS operatives? From what we are made to understand especially given the designation of that outfit, they are specially trained to apprehend and smoke out armed robbers from their hiding places. As I write, the information filtering indicate that they are also to stamp out kidnapping.
If that is the case, we need to be educated on the correlation between armed robbery and cybercrimes. This differentiation is germane for us to determine the propriety or otherwise of the mission of the SARS operatives in Sagamu on that fateful day. If the mandate of SARS as seems very obvious, does not include cybercrimes, then the motivation of the police officers must be for personal gains. We are also faced with the danger of profiling upcoming young men as yahoo boys. This must stop. The police must invent more scientific ways of tracking cyber fraud rather than this fixation with young men.
Deputy Inspector General of Police, Peter Ogunyonwo who represented the IG at a condolence visit to the family of the deceased shocked the nation when he disclosed that the police officers were on an illegal duty and did not obtain clearance from the police formation in Sagamu before the operation.
It was for this reason that the IG ordered the disbandment of the zonal intervention squad in Ogun State and handed over their office to the state police command. The force also ordered the sacking of the inspector who led that ill-fated outing. As good as these measures are, they inevitably expose some of the dysfunctions of the current structure and organization of the police institution in the country.
What seems obvious from the disbanding of the zonal squad and its handover to the state police command is the exposure of the abuse such creations lend themselves to on account of lack of synergy with the states’ police commands. That is the message we get from the Sagamu episode.
But it remains an ad hoc measure accentuated by the exigencies of the abuse that led to the footballers’ death. There is everything to expect that the zonal intervention squad is not just a creation peculiar to Ogun State. The police authorities should speak up on the fate of other zonal intervention squads. Are they also going to be disbanded or allowed to stay on? This poser is germane given that the Sagamu incident may just be a tip of the iceberg on the monumental corruption, abuse and excesses of such outfits across the country.
That calls for reforms in the current structure and organization of the police force. Apart from reforms, training and re-training which the police force needs, it is imperative to urgently align their operations to global practices. But our police operatives need constant monitoring. It is obvious from the extant incident that many of our police officers embark on illegal duties to satisfy the lure of their stomach. When they are not mounting illegal checkpoints to collect tolls, they are seen conducting themselves in manners that diminish the very offices they occupy.
But for the way the Sagamu incident turned out, Kazeem could have been framed for a criminal offence if he failed to grease the pockets of his traducers or dispensed with. This is not something strange. Early this year, we had the unfortunate case of a Port Harcourt based mechanic, Chima Ikwunado whose curious death in police cell elicited wide demonstrations that the police had to fight hard to disband. The unfortunate story of Chima and four of his colleagues was that they drove against the traffic and apprehended by police operatives who allegedly asked for settlement which they could not afford. They were then taken to the police station and forced under torture to confess they robbed the cars they were driving from their owners.
The refusal by Chima to confess to what he knew nothing about and the pains of the torture to force him confess led to his death. The rest of what transpired at the police station, the efforts of those entrusted with our lives to cover up their sordid tracks, left a sour taste in our mouths. But that is the situation we are contending with. That is the source of the mistrust between the police and the general public. That is the dissonance evoked each time the police authorities mount publicity campaigns to portray the police as friends of the public. That is the contradictory message we get when we read posters around police stations that bail is free when actually the reverse is the case.
These call for serious training, re-training and re-orientation of police personnel. It is not enough to reel out the number of riffles, armored personnel carriers, drones and personnel needed by the force to perform as they did during their recent interface with the national assembly. As relevant as these are, disoriented personnel, one propelled by criminal intention to label innocent citizens as criminals, one that turns the rules of engagement upside down, is an unmitigated danger to the society. If the deaths of Kazeem and Chima lead to a better police force, then they would not have died in vain. But will they?
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