8th December, 2010
Perhaps to atone for their dastardly acts in recent times, policemen are currently holding a five-day prayer retreat at the police College, Ikeja, Lagos. The retreat, organised by the Catholic chaplaincy of the police is being attended by 24 priests from all over the country, including Fagboun O. Seun, a reverend father and an Assistant Superintendent of Police, who is also the Chaplain at the Force Headquarters, Abuja.
According to the organisers, the retreat is to make policemen fast and pray for the growth of the nation and the police officers.
We have nothing against the police holding a prayer retreat to seek the face of God in the face of daunting challenges confronting them in the task of maintaining law and order in the society. It is good to seek divine intervention in our activities and learn to do the will of God. For it is by so doing that we can achieve success in our endeavours.
Our grouse, however, has to do with the theme of the prayer retreat and timing.
Frankly, the period we are in calls for pragmatism by everybody to address the numerous ills confronting the nation.
We dare say that holding a prayer retreat at this period is not the solution to the wanton killing of defenceless civilians by the men in uniform in recent times. This is not the time for a spiritual excursion into the realm of the unknown. We all know the problems facing the police. They include poor training and inability to adapt to the present democratic dispensation, siege mentality, lack of equipment, poor remunerations and corruption.
The police leadership should address the incessant killing of innocent civilians by the rank and file.
The theme of the retreat should have dwelt on measures to prevent unnecessary killing of defenceless civilians by policemen.
Just last Sunday, a civilian, Femi Olayiwola, a.k.a. Femi Best, was killed in the most gruesome manner by a divisional police officer, DPO. The victim, it was learnt, ran to a police station to seek refuge but yet the police officer pursued him to the station and shot him dead in his car.
The question the police leadership ought to be asking by now is what could have made the senior police officer to kill the defenceless Olayiwola.
One would have expected the orderly room trial of the officer who was arrested immediately to have commenced.
The police can use this to assuage the anger of members of the public over the incident.
We are calling on the police authorities to embark on a massive enlightenment of its personnel to use the guns bought for them with tax payers’ money with all sense of responsibility. They should stop killing innocent civilians. Policemen and members of the public should be partners in crime control. The police can only succeed in crime fighting if they get the cooperation of the public. The police hierachy should organise a retraining programme for its rank and file.
What is needed at this period is for the police to ensure that a halt is put to the senseless killing of defenceless civilians. Policemen should be exposed to periodic training in weapon handling to prevent accidental shootings which is so common nowadays.
The Inspector-General of Police should move fast in the present case to reassure the public that nobody is above the law, not even a DPO who callously snuffed life out of an innocent civilian.
It is good to pray, but prayers without action is nothing.
The police should first cleanse their stable of the stench of innocent blood shed under questionable circumstances by bringing culprits to book befor their prayers for growth can be answered.
This is spiritual. They must atone for their sins first before their prayers can be heard by God.
