Thursday, November 20, 2014
I have never had any love for the police. I think the very
worst of Nigerian police officers – the so-called “good ones” among them are
the exception, not the rule.
Just over a year ago, some of them in Awkuzu, a rural town in
Anambra state, terrorized a certain Mr Justin Nwankwo to the very limits of his
sanity as they tried to coerce him into making a confession to a crime he did
not commit. It is perhaps an injustice on the part of the human language that I
can summarize in one sentence the several nights of torture that Mr Nwankwo had to undergo; all of this simply because the police (whose salaries are paid with
money realized from tax payments made by Justin, by you, by me) wanted him to sign a prepared statement
that would indict him of a crime he was innocent of, and absolve them of their
obligation to carry out a proper investigation.
If I was shocked by their treatment of Justin, I was
bewildered by the terrorist attack they mounted on lawmakers within the grounds
of the National Assembly today.
I fail to comprehend whence the police draws the authority to
fire tear-gas canisters at lawmakers that we, the generality of Nigerians
elected (or selected) to make laws for us. I cannot understand that the
Inspector General of Police is yet to resign, hours after the shameful police
action that resulted in legislators scaling the gates of the National Assembly
complex in order to perform their constitutionally prescribed duties. I cannot
understand that the President is yet to make a statement condemning this rape
of our Constitution and democracy. I will never understand any logic that
allows security officials deploy weapons against lawmakers and thereafter justify
their action as having been taken against miscreants.
In my opinion, the terrorists that besiege Nigeria are camped
not only in Sambisa, but also in every police station and at every police
checkpoint in this country. The only difference is that one group of terrorists
have a uniform or two, and a chain of command that is recognized by the
Constitution.
And just like all those people who suffer every day in Borno,
Yobe, and Adamawa, the rest of us in the rest of the country are victims of the
special brand of terrorism that only the Nigerian police officer can unleash.
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