The tragic killing of Bako Angbashim, a Divisional Police Officer (DPO) who was beheaded in Ahoada, Rivers State, has once again laid bare the grave danger law enforcement officers face in a country gradually going rogue.
There is something about Rivers State that frightens even neutrals. Beyond the wild eccentricities of Nyesom Wike who was recently governor of the state for eight years, there is the fact that the state sits square in the heart of the Niger Delta.
For anyone familiar with the Nigerian story, the Niger Delta has long held a haunting place in Nigerian lore.
Rich and prodigiously blessed with crude oil which is easily one of nature’s most precious gifts, the region has for years experienced what it is like to live in a country that is as chaotic as it is unsafe.
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As the Niger Delta region has produced the oil that has powered Nigeria’s stuttering economic advancement, it has suffered criminal neglect.
Now, neglect can be obnoxiously prolific. In the case of the Niger Delta, neglect has seeped into spores, polluting its rivers, fouling its air and sickening its people.
As a people’s gift has tragically become their curse, they have responded with militancy manifested in acts that are as criminal as they are about sending a message.
It started with kidnapping, and full-fledged economic sabotage, before quickly becoming organised and morphing into full-fledged militancy.
It took an uneasy truce reached with the federal government for the vicious attacks on Nigeria’s national assets to subside. But for all its stellar gifts, Rivers State remains high on tension and crime. Cultists, oil thieves and every other kind of criminal imaginable call the state home.
For Bako Angbashim, an indigene of Nasarawa State who was serving his country in a state he had called home for years, death was always lurking around the corner.
In a country where inefficiency and ineptitude are flagrantly extolled, where criminals are brutally efficient, the superintendent of police had acquired a reputation for pristine professionalism, endearing himself to the people in the process.
So, he had to be killed, in a way to send a message. He was not just killed but beheaded, his vital organs cut off.
The gallant officer’s death was staged in such a manner as to mock Nigeria and send out the message that criminals can toy with those who defend the country.
It begs the question: If a police officer can be decapitated with so much savagery, what is the fate of ordinary everyday Nigerians?
For all Nigerians know, the tragic police officer only got in the crosshairs of his killers for taking his job seriously, perhaps too seriously?
What had he exposed? What was he fighting? Cultism? Oil theft? Or was it some other serious crime that had not yet become publicly known?
One Gift Divine Okpara aka 2baba has been fingered in the gruesome murder. He has been declared wanted. It remains to be seen how long it will take before he is made to face the law.
But before he is caught, before all those who commit grievous crimes against Nigerians are caught, serious measures must be taken to improve the security of those who keep Nigeria safe.
They would include soldiers, police officers, personnel of paramilitary groups and even vigilantes.
If insecurity is to be reined in, those who form a strong wall against it must be strengthened to combat it. There is no other way.
The alternative is for criminals to continue to mock the country by committing the kind of crime that has now claimed the life of Bako Angbashim.
While his family is left to lick its wound and rue its fate, more Nigerian families must not be plunged into the unimaginable fate of losing a loved one in such a manner.
While efforts must continue to rid Nigeria of bad eggs, collaboration between communities and security agents must pick up pace to ensure that more communities like Ahoada are not turned into a hiding place for the criminals who prowl Nigeria.
Ike Willie-Nwobu ([email protected])
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