Date Published: 03/07/10

Another unprofessional exhibition by the professional Nigeria Police By Odimegwu Onwumere

How many Nigerians will remain on earth before the Vision 2020 is actualized if perhaps everyday two Nigerians are killed and many others wounded by police strays bullets? What do the Nigeria police officers learn in their police college? These and many more questions kept on resounding in my mind as I was reading a national newspaper on Thursday, March 4, 2010, with the caption, “Police stray bullets kill 2 in Enugu”.

How dare any trained security agent shoots, without prior consideration of the environment he was in? Is it wise that a security agent should shoot in a trading market because one suspect-criminal ran inside the market? That a five-man police team started shooting “sporadically” when at 23 Ochi Street, Achara Layout, Enugu State, one Obiora whom they went to arrest turned difficult for them as the suspect used a matchet and caused serious injury on one of them, is nothing but a deficiency on the relics of the Nigeria police integrity.

The uncouth temperament of the policemen to start shooting in a residential area during the cause of the arrest that led to the untimely deaths of two unsuspecting residents of Enugu and many injured persons  by what was called “police stray bullets”, is unprofessional usage of gun by the gun-gullible policemen.

There was nowhere it was stated in the report that I read that the Obiora used a gun against the policemen that should perhaps warrant their retaliation in what often is tagged “in self defence”. The report stated that Obiora used a matchet, and I earnestly believe that any trained police officer can dislodge an untrained man with a knife, let alone a five-man police team.

Why opening fire on/for a man with just a mere matchet? Assuming that Nigerians engage their government in “dangerous” protests as wont in Europe the police perhaps would have wiped us out from the surface of the earth with their useless habit of opening fire at the least provocation in Nigeria.

The police in Europe hardly shoot: they know their onus and control their temper and apply their training skill in everything police work they do, unlike their counterpart in Nigeria who have turned nightmare to Nigerians. You dare not challenge a Nigeria police officer with a mere conversation, else you meet your waterloo.  And you will hear all sorts of unprintable lies from the police hierarchy when the international community or human rights community probes. That is bizarre!

It is a pity that in Nigeria, police stray bullets, knowingly or unknowingly, have pummelled many Nigerians to the soil, thereby the rate of police stray bullets victims is competing with the rate of those killed by the Acquired Immuno-deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) annually in Nigeria. The policemen didn’t consider if the Obiora was mentally sub-normal before opening fire. And even if he was, the idea of opening fire on a man with just a mere marchet is not worthy of the professional policemen/force. Their act was unprofessional!

According to the report, when the Enugu Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Ebere Amaraizu was contacted on the matter, he confirmed the death of one victim of the police stray bullets, and said: “A case of assault was reported against one Obiora Utondu, a case of wounding in which he inflicted on one Pastor Jude Utondu of 23 Ochi Street. Based on this the police went to arrest Obiora who became violent and used machete on a police corporal, Hycinth Ugwu. The suspect went ahead to break the windscreen of the police Hilux van.”

Judging by that statement by the PPRO above, one could ascertain that the policemen who went to arrest the Obiora were just mere civilians in police garb. They only hoped on the power of gun, which they fired, and watched Obiora cut one of their own, and break their van’s windscreen, without engaging him in a physical bout, at least with the aid of the teargas? And who hopes if they were with teargas because we have seen different kind of sticks or woods replacing the police baton as used among the Nigeria police officers on our roads. Are the police still uniform men?

It’s saddening that the five-man police team that started shooting in trying to arrest the Obiora that led to the deaths of two innocent Nigerians and many wounded, should be tried of manslaughter and the appropriate court action taken on them. They exhibited recklessness. Why are the Nigeria policemen always happy-trigger? Have we not heard about policemen shooting Nigerians just because a driver or commercial motorcyclist refused to give them the N20 they collect on the roads?

Does human life not worth anything in Nigeria?  The police officers need an everyday, psychiatric examination. This should not be waved with the back of the hand; Nigeria police officers are going gaga. Does it mean that the word “Nigeria Police” mean corruption? Imagine that rarely does any Inspector General of the Nigeria Police Force left the force, between 1999-2007, without a finger of monetary corruption and unlawful acquisition of property levelled against him. In a nutshell, the “sporadic” shooting by the policemen is by me wholeheartedly condemned. Let the bereaved take heart.

Odimegwu Onwumere is a Poet/Author, Founder of Poet Against Child Abuse (PACA), Rivers State. Mobile: +2348032552855. Email: apoet_25@yahoo.com