Who Will Rein In These Trigger Happy Cops?
The rate at which policemen gun down innocent Nigerians is becoming alarming. Barely three days after a commuter bus driver, Anayo Uzoma, was shot dead in Lagos by a trigger-happy policeman, another cop shot and killed a pregnant woman and the driver of a cab she was travelling in at a suburb of Abuja, the nation’s federal capital. The Abuja incident which happened on Monday sparked off a violent protest which culminated in the burning of a bank by a mob which demanded that the culprit ,who took refuge in the bank, that was burnt, be brought to justice.
In the two instances, Mobile policemen, notoriously called ‘kill and go’ pulled the trigger.
We condemn these barbaric acts which have become very rampant among policemen. Why do our policemen have to pull the trigger against their unnarmed compatriots when there is no real danger or threat to the lives of the cops? These guns were bought for the cops to protect law abiding citizens and not to be used to kill everybody they see on the streets.
The police authorities usually hide under the guise of ‘accidental discharge’ whenever any of the officers kill innocent Nigerians. The misuse of weapons by policemen speaks volumes about the characters that have found their way into the police force. It does not only suggest that they are not properly trained in weapons handling but also that they are not fit to be recruited into the force in the first place.
Like thousands of other cases that had happened in the past, the officers who shot these Nigerians dead last Friday in Lagos and on Monday in Abuja may go unpunished, thus encouraging the other cops to take the lives of Nigerians at the slightest provocation. The way they carry on, no one is safe in this country anymore.
The police reform Nigerians need should be all encompassing. It should start with the recruitment process which must be very stringent to prevent armed robbers, drug addicts and other hardened criminals from enlisting in the force as is the case at the moment. Many graduates should be allowed into the force and they should be paid what graduates earn in other professions to discourage them from cutting corners and sometimes comit murder to augment their income. They must also receive adequate training in weapons handling and human psychology.
The police force should not be a dumping ground for the misfits and dregs in the society as is the case today, if not, we will continue to grapple with the problem of fatal ‘accidental discharge’ all the time.
Nigerians want a police force they can be proud of, not a frustrated bunch that always turn their guns against their fellow country men. The hatred the vast majority of the people harbour against the police will persist as long as they kill Nigerians on the street for no reason.
The Inspector General of Police, Hafiz Ringim and the Police Service Commission have a huge task on their hands and that is, to rein in the barbaric, trigger-happy officers who now co-mingle with civilised people in the society.
In a saner society, killers of Anayo in Lagos and the pregnant woman and taxi driver in Abuja would have been prosecuted and punished appropriately. We know that these cops may get away with their crimes and leave the families of the deceased to bear the brunt of losing their breadwinners.
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