#EndSARS: Police has refused to change, unlawful killings persist – RULAAC

…Insists cases of extrajudicial killings must be prosecuted…

By Ezurike Ugochukwu

The Police Service Commission (PSC), Abuja has been reminded of the need to wade into the alleged unending killing of Nigerians by policemen who behave in a manner depicting the recent EndSARS protests have not taught them any lesson.

In a letter to the Commission, dated 11 December, 2020, the Civil rights group, Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC) called on the PSC to give due attention to the various cases of extrajudicial killings by the police especially the ones happening since after the EndSARS imbroglio.

The letter signed by Okechukwu Nwanguma
Executive Director of RULAAC however listed various recent cases of police misuse of firearms in states of the federation which the most disturbing was the case that took place in Imo State on 5 December, 2020.

He said the recent acts of abuse of people’s right by the Nigerian Police Force (NPF) may not be unconnected to the recent “illegal police orders banning civic protests” and the repeated directives to police officers by the Inspector-General of Police to use force to quell protests.

RULAAC insisted that the Police have learnt no lessons from the #EndSARS experience, as It was never expected that such high number of cases of unprovoked and unlawful police killings would so soon be recorded in Nigeria post the EndSARS protest.

It went on to call to memory some of the occurrences in some of the states of the federation, as Ekiti, Imo, Rivers States and many others.

In Ekiti state, where an incident that happened at Queens Court Hotel along Ado-Ikere Road, Ekiti State saw a drunk policeman shot dead a man on the night of Saturday, November 21, 2020.

“A team of drunk officers drove into the hotel, allegedly threatened to kill some of the guests. They opened fire, and all of a sudden, one of the hotel guests, a young man named Olaoye Abayomi, was killed,” RULAAC said.

The incident in Rivers State on Thursday, December 10, 2020 was yet another shock where it was reported that a commercial tricycle operator was killed by police officers.

RULAAC stated that a policeman around Rukpoku asked the Keke driver for ₦100 bribe which the driver could not provide.

This situation degenerated as youths in the area – Rukpoku and Rumuodomayah in Obio Akpor Local Government Area of the state occupied the streets set bonfires in protest of the killing.

“The protest in Rukpoku snowballed into a full-blown riot and spread to neighbouring Rumuodomaya community. Another person was reported to have been shot dead following confrontations between the protesting youths and the police,” RULAAC reported.

The reported brutal killing in Imo state is obviously one case, too many. RULAAC said one Jude Oguzie Mmezi, a native of Umuamusa Autonomous Community (Old Amucha) in Njaba LGA of Imo State was killed by a team of policemen at a checkpoint in the area.on that faithful 5 December, 2020.

The Rights group brought to light, interview granted by Ichie Ken Ndukwu, a relative to the Imo State victim of extrajudicial killing Mmezi.

The reports said: “That the victim who happened to be his cousin was gunned down by a trigger-happy policeman on Saturday, December 5, 2020 between the hours of 9.00 am and 9.43 am at Orodo, Mbaitoli LGA, Imo State, along the Owerri-Orlu Road after he left his house in the morning of that day to attend a wedding

“Along the way, Mmezi ran into a traffic jam caused by police officers at a checkpoint flagging down many vehicles and ‘he parked his car by the side of the road, came down to plead with these policemen to assist him clear the road for him as he was rushing to be in the wedding service and to get back home before 12 noon for our village meeting when he was rebuffed by these policemen.

“One of the police officers asked him if he had come to teach them their work. As he turned back to walk back to his car, he was shot at, at close range on his left rib cage, while the bullet escaped from his right lower abdomen.

“He collapsed at the middle of the road, while these policemen jumped into their Hilux van and sped off, leaving him to bleed to death. Some good Nigerians gathered his limp body into his car and sped to the Federal Medical Centre Owerri(FMC) where he was confirmed dead on arrival by the Doctors on duty’.

“His family, after they received the information, had ‘real tough time’ getting the Police to ascertain the police station that covers the jurisdiction within which the incident happened. ‘I and some of my relations were dribbled about by the police authorities as we were made to shuttle from Owerri to Nwaorieubi severally, but for a volunteer who does not want her name mentioned that joined us to the scene of this heinous crime to let us know it is really Mbaitoli and not the Njaba Division that committed this murderous act’.

“The actions of the police left much to be desired as they did all within their ambit to make sure we were frustrated and all tracks closed’.

“When we told them it was done by their men, they tried to defend them by saying our inability to get the number of the vehicle they used is a problem because we cannot say for sure if it was the police or any other arm of the military or paramilitary as almost all of them use the same white coloured Hilux vans donated to them by the Imo State Government and that these personnel always ply this route’.

“when we tried to put it to them that that particular spot and the checkpoint where this crime took place is where the police always mounted their roadblock therefore the idea of saying it could have been perpetrated by other persons was out of the question. They even tried to make us believe it could have been by his business associates but we still refused to swallow this pill’.

“we made an official report at the Mbaitoli Area Command and the Police Control Room. We were also advised to put up a strongly worded petition to the Commissioner of Police on Monday’.

“The family eventually confirmed that the scene of crime falls within the Mbaitoli LGA jurisdiction.

“When the police tried to evade this aspect, we called on the Coordinator of the Special Constabulary Squad from Njaba LGA who came and ascertained the jurisdiction for us. We also invited a police woman who does not want to be quoted and who also affirmed it to be within the Mbaitoli Division. We also made our entry at the Police Control Room at the State Police Command too’.

“The volunteer told us all he knows about the incident and how he saw him in his own pool of blood while the police Hilux van zoomed past them as if they were chasing some criminals only for them to get to that checkpoint always mounted by the police from Mbaitoli to behold our brother Oguzie writhing in pains in his own pool of blood, beside his car. He had no alternative than to lift him in company of other persons into his (Oguzie’s) car and sped back to Owerri, but unfortunately, Oguzie could not make it. The bullet pierced his body and fell off’.

Nwanguma

“Another funny and annoying part of this was that the police started making frantic moves to remove the corpse from the FMC.

“We became suspicious of the motive of the police when they started claiming that these white Hilux vans were not donated to the police alone therefore those culprits could have come from other military and paramilitary formations using the same type and colour of Hilux van’.

“We were happy to be informed by the police that members of the police team that committed the heinous crime were eventually arrested and are detained at the state police headquarters,” the report stated.

RULAAC has therefore expressed its reservation that announcing the arrest and detention of police officers responsible for extrajudicial killings in the past by Police authorities has never been a guarantee of genuine commitment by police authorities to ensure that such unlawful killings of innocent citizens by police officers would be promptly, impartially and effectively investigated and justice served.

Recalling an incident still in Imo State where a member of a police team on a stop and search duty allegedly shot dead a 27-year-old commercial motorcycle operator at the Banana Junction, Orlu, on July 9, 2020 for failure to use a face mask and refusal to give a fifty-naira (N50) bribe’.

The status of the police investigation promised by the Commissioner of Police, Imo State into this killing is still shrouded in secrecy till date.

Similar to the case of the commercial motorcyclists killed in Orlu, the police officers who shot Mr. Jude Oguzie Mmezi also took to their heels, even as the Imo State Police Command has characteristically announced that the police officers who killed the commercial motorcyclist had been arrested and detained to face internal disciplinary proceedings. But till date, nothing more has been heard of that case.