Nigerians are not fond of members of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), and with good reason. Their reputation for brutality and extortion is second to none. However, the natural compassion of most Nigerians makes us feel sorry for them when they suffer misfortune. Even as Nigerians have become immune to mass murder and atrocities on a grand scale, the killing of policemen still evokes public outrage. The recent attack on the convoy of “Apostle” Johnson Suleiman of Omega Fire Ministries highlights a major problem in Nigeria’s policing strategies. During the incident, seven people, including police officers, lost their lives. The “Man of God” escaped the carnage because he was travelling in a bullet-proof vehicle.
Disturbingly, one of the suspects arrested and captured alive by vigilantes was not interrogated but instead killed by a police officer leading the outgoing State Commissioner of Police to order the immediate withdrawal of the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) of the area.
In spite of their atrocious record of failure to detect perpetrators of major crimes the NPF, as usual, urged the public to remain calm and patient because “no stone would be left unturned to unearth the circumstances surrounding the event”. A Toyota Avensis vehicle used by the assassins was registered to an individual with an address in Niger State and a phone number which when called on a phone caller app which identifies telephone owners, showed the name “Hired Assassins”. This comes after all the hullaballoo and inconvenience caused by Minister of Communication Isa Pantami’s unfathomable insistence on blocking telephone lines without National Identity Number (NIN) supposedly to detect crime!
Up until today, kidnappers and criminal elements freely use telephone lines to commit crimes. Unfortunately, after the attack, Apostle Suleiman released a video in which, rather than sympathise with the families of the victims, he boasted that he cannot be killed because he is a “Man of god”. Critics reminded him that he was saved by his bullet proof car not by the “anointing oil for special protection” he sells to his congregation!
Shehu Sani, a former lawmaker representing Kaduna Central Senatorial district described bullet-proof vehicles as a major lifeline in the face of rising insecurity in Nigeria because in recent times, gunmen have routinely waylaid prominent persons killing their police escorts and orderlies in the process.
Quite outrageously, Apostle Johnson said he knew who was behind the attack but would not come out and mention their names. This is an unbridled insult to the families of those killed, especially the policemen. Nigerians are tired of our ill-equipped policemen being gunned down virtually on a daily basis while on private assignments.
The commercialisation of the NPF means that police escorts are available for a fee. It’s a modern day status symbol to be accompanied by police officers that reduces them to virtual domestic staff. In a viral video, a police orderly was seen at a social function carrying a tray of food for “Oga Madam”. The Acting Inspector-General of Police (IGP) was so embarrassed he warned police to stop carrying handbags and holding umbrellas for their patrons, but nothing has changed. Although the IGP also said the era of assigning more than two police orderlies to everyone that applied was over, this isn’t the case as some well-known individuals still have up to 10 police escorts attached to them!
These police escorts are happy because of the perks and fringe benefits they enjoy. Instead of working in smelling decrepit police stations, they gallivant about in brand new vehicles, attend social functions, wear well-starched dry-cleaned uniforms, carry shining new guns and eat good food for a job which usually entails simply having no respect for the general public or for traffic laws and generally massaging the ego of whoever has paid for the service.
Questions are rightly being asked as to whether police escorts undergo any special training in VIP protection, or are they simply the normal poorly trained officers? Why is it that the NPF will allow the ‘purchaser” of police protection to travel in a bullet-proof car but not demand the same for the escorts? What special circumstances qualify a person who isn’t holding public office for police protection, or is it simply the ability to pay?
Back in 2016, the then IGP Solomon Arase said there would be no more orderlies for politicians and individuals. At the time, it was estimated that over 10,000 police officers had abandoned their real duties and were gallivanting about with private individuals. Half a decade later, nothing has changed.
Not too long ago, a female officer Teju Moses was allegedly assaulted on the orders of a civilian to whom she had been improperly attached. She was filmed bleeding profusely and begging to be taken to the hospital. Her travails exposed the top-level complicity in the massive abuse of the police. The conversion of police to private guards and domestic aides has been institutionalised as a money-making venture.
Despite the nation’s security challenges and police under-manning, an inordinate number of police officers are deployed as orderlies and escorts. The main lesson to be learnt from the Suleiman’s tragedy is that our policemen should not be used as cannon fodder. There must be trained ‘Special Protection Officers’ available for public officers only. If a person feels so insecure that they cannot travel freely, then they should either stay at home or pay for private bodyguards, not set up policemen to be murdered without a chance to defend themselves.
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