The Nation Newspaper

Tag: corporal

  • So very corporal

    Did you ever interrogate the meaning of the word ‘corporal’, dear reader? Hardball can now announce to you, pro bono, that he has found that it is a most quirky word; one that borders on the bizarre. He hereby recommends that that odd word should be reinvestigated and put it its proper place or in fact, be put down.

    For some clarity, corporal to an average Nigerian is that hapless police officer, the scruffy straggler who has been reduced by his society into a gun-toting Dennis-the-menace. He is just a shade above the lowliest fellow in most uniform corps. He is a form of derogation just as his appellation has been found out to be. We shall explain shortly.

    Yes, the Nigerian police corporal is the cause celebre here but what do you make of a word that denotes ‘body’, mere mass, having no spirit or even mind if we stretch it. Imagine a heap of ‘body’, lifeless or even alive for that matter but without life.

    Corporal also means the cloth (yes, mere cloth) on which the bread and wine of the Holy Communion (Eucharist) are laid out and the same piece of cloth with which the remains of the elements are covered.

    Corporeal and corpus are also related to the very idea of a (mass) of body copious and cadaverous even.

    Sorry for taking you through a shuttle around a puerile word but this has been triggered as you might have guessed, by a recent action of a certain Corporal Ayodele Famodimu.

    As the story goes, last Wednesday, at a police check point somewhere at Oye-Ekiti in Ekiti State, Famodimu had demanded the usual N50 from a commercial driver. The story is that the driver had declined and Corporal Famodimu had opened fire.

    The driver reportedly lost control and the bus skidded into a nearby bush and summersaulted. Passengers managed to crawl out of the upended vehicle unscathed. But the driver was not so lucky. He was struck by the bullet and he passed on at the scene of the incident.

    While the corporal is said to be currently undergoing orderly room trial prelude to his being fired and arraigned in court, we come to the crux of today’s treatise. Why do we have to name this cadre of police or any force for that matter corporal?

    Does that suggest that they do not have to think or they are not expected to have a mind? Why do we have to hand guns to a  corporal cadre where there is half training, little wisdom and almost no knowledge?

    Policing has become a highly sophisticated and intellectual calling. The police authorities must rethink this system that hands gun to a corporal – a mere mass of body!

  • Of child abuse and corporal punishment

    SIR: There has been a rise in the cases of mental and physical abuse of children. A father with the connivance of his wife allegedly chained his nine-year old son in a room for more than a month for allegedly stealing meat from the family’s pot of soup. The boy was left to starve without food or water; by the time he was discovered by government officials, he had become extremely weak. Another father allegedly beat his 13 years old son and in the process, ruptured his intestine. There was also another case in which the private part of an 11 year old girl was burnt with hot pressing iron by her mother for coming home late from school, in Ikorodu area of Lagos.

    These are signs of a dysfunctional society where homes are no longer a safe haven of love, protection and care for children.  A situation where people can no longer differentiate between punishment, correction and total disregard for a child’s right.

    There is a need to draw a line of distinction between abuse and corporal punishment as thousands of children are abused daily under the guise of punishment. Some children have lost their lives in the process while some have been maimed for life. Any punishment or correction that threatens the life, health or well-being of a child is an abuse. These forms of punishments are unacceptable, illegal and punishable under the law. Punishment that inflicts pain, emotional and mental torture as well as physical abuse is criminal.

    It is pertinent to observe that there are no strong guidelines or laid down policies, regarding corporal punishment and children, like it is done in developed countries, thus, the flagrant abuse of children in African traditional societies.

    It is also important to note that this form of abuse has become widespread in schools, primary and secondary schools especially. It is, indeed, disheartening, because it is happening in an informed environment where it is believed that, as educationists, they should know better.

    To entrench respect for the rights of the Nigerian child in the consciousness of society and promote the culture of patience and tolerance for children, government should intensify efforts to ensure that policies on Child Rights Protection are implemented while religious institutions should also assist government by building strong foundations for the protection of the rights of children in homes and the society through their programmes and activities.

    In 2003, Nigeria adopted the Child Right Act. But to date, out of 36 states only 16 including Lagos and Abuja have passed the Act. It is, therefore, imperative that Rights Activists in the country step up advocacy for domestication and full implementation of the Child Right Act, across the federation and the Child Right Law which forbids the physical abuse of children should be properly enforced in schools across the nation.

     

    • Temilade Aruya,

    Ministry of Information & Strategy, Alausa, Ikeja, Lagos.

  • Mob kills police corporal over death of two persons

    Mob kills police corporal over death of two persons

    A mob yesterday shot dead Police Corporal Sunday David for allegedly killing two persons in Agege, Lagos.

    The mob killed Sunday, who was in mufti, as he tried to flee after his allegedly dastardly act.

    David, popularly known as Iku Sunday, who was attached to the Special Anti-Robbery Sqaud (SARS), was shot in the forehead and neck on Salawu Street, Orile-Agege.

    His assailants, it was learnt, caught up with him in traffic around Elere, pursued him up to Salawu Street and shot him.

    It was gathered that his blood was splattered on the seats of his newly bought Toyota Camry saloon car; the side glass and the open roof were shattered.

    A resident in the neighbourhood said the incident occurred around 3pm, adding that Sunday’s killers did not remove anything from him.

    She said the police found the corporal’s remains behind his steering with bullet wound on his neck.

    According to an eyewitness, the corporal had a pistol in his pocket, an AK47 rifle in his car’s boot, a gold necklace and cash, but they were not taken by his killers.

    It was gathered that Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) operatives and officers from Elere Police Division, took his body to the Ikeja General Hospital morgue.

    “It was at the point of searching that the police realised he was one of their own. The man shot two people, one in the chest and the other in the neck.

    “He lives around here and they said he was running when those chasing him caught up with him in traffic and killed him.

    “We heard that nothing was taken from his car. The people he shot were rushed to the hospital but we later heard they died in the hospital,” she said.

    Another eyewitness told The Nation that the late policeman opened fire on the victims on a football pitch.

    A source said the late Sunday, who is survived by three children, is in trouble because of the guns found on him.

    According to the senior police officer, Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Solomon Arase has directed that policemen should never take guns home.

    The officer said investigations would show how the late corporal, who was yet to report to his new place of assignment at SARS Ikorodu, came about the guns.

    “It is a serious issue. He has been posted to Ikorodu for over one week now but he has not reported there. We are yet to know how he had two guns in his possession and what he was doing with them.

    “Just the fact that he had those guns means dismissal. Because the IGP has been warning since last year that no policeman should take weapons home after duty.

    “We cannot say it was armed robbery since his attackers did not take anything from him. He had two guns, a gold chain, and money bit none was touched.

    “They just killed him and ensured he was dead. I do not know the condition of the people he shot but I heard one died in the hospital,” said the police source.

    Police spokesman Joseph Offor, a Deputy Superintendent of police (DSP), said one of the victims was responding to treatment. The other did not survive.

    According to Offor, the corporal was driving with his friend identified as Taiwo Balogun before they were shot by unknown assailants.

    “One Raheem Sulaiman of 18, Adeyinka Road, Orile Agege sustained gunshot wound on the neck.

    “Corpses of the dead have been deposited at the Mainland General Hospital for autopsy. The injured is receiving treatment at the Ikeja General Hospital.

    “Investigation is ongoing and the matter will be transferred to the State Criminal Investigations Department (SCID), Panti,” he said.

     

  • Corporal held for wife’s death

    A police corporal Yinka Oloko of the Lagos State Command is being held for the death of his wife.

    He is being detained at the Ikeja Police Division for alleged taking home his service pistol which accidentally discharged and killed his wife on Tuesday.

    According to a source, the incident occurred around 9.30pm in his house at Egbeda, Lagos. The suspect, the source added, allegedly went to Police Officers Wife Association (POWA) market to relax after closing from work before going home.

    “When he got home, his wife helped him to hang his clothes. She kept the gun on the bed while helping him with his dresses. The pistol suddenly exploded and the bullet hit the woman on her lap. The corporal rushed her to a nearby hospital but all efforts by the doctors and nurses to save her life failed, “the source said.

    Police spokesman Joe Offor, a Deputy Superintendent (DSP) described the incident as an accidental discharge.

    Offor described Oloko as a “fine gentleman.”

    Investigations, Offor said, showed that the couple’s families are not quarrelling.

    The Nation learnt that Oloko’s case has been transferred to the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).

  • Police corporal remanded for allegedly killing mother of four

    A 28-year-old police officer Museliu Aremu, who allegedly shot dead a mother of four, was yesterday remanded in prison custody by an Ebute Meta Chief Magistrate’s Court, Lagos.

    Chief Magistrate, Mrs. Folasade Botoku, ordered that the accused, facing a two-count charge of murder and causing grievous harm, be remanded in Ikoyi Prisons pending the release of legal advice from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP). The plea of the accused, a corporal  attached to the Isheri Oshun Police Station, was not taken.

    A counsel from the State Criminal Investigative Department(SCID),Panti, G.O.Osuyi, had earlier told the court that the offences were committed on September 16, at about 8.00 p.m. at Isheri Oshun, Ijegun, a Lagos suburb. He alleged that the accused shot dead one Comfort Godwin Sunday and caused grievous harm to one Godwin Sunday, the deceased’s husband.

    It was reported that the accused opened fire at the tricycle  occupied by the couple killing the mother of four instantly and causing serious injury to the husband.

    Osuyi noted that the offences contravened Sections 221 and 243 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State, 2011.

    The case was adjourned to October 19 pending legal advice from the DPP’s office.