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Kolade Johnson, SARS and the Cheapening of Human Lives by Okafor Dodoh

Dodoh Okafor
When Kolade Johnson left his residence to join scores of other youths in the neighbourhood to watch a top-of-the-chart English Premier League (EPL) game between title rivals, Liverpool FC and their rivals from North London, Tottenham Spurs, little did he know that it would be the last EPL match he would watch. It could not have occurred to him that he would be the subject of a social media rage by millions of Nigerians demanding immediate reforms in the police force including outright disbandment of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) unit. And except he was a clairvoyant, the 36-year old Johnson, said to be a jolly good fellow and a popular person in his neighbourhood could not have imagined that death was lurking in the corner when he stepped out of his flat enjoy a favourite pastime of dozens of millions of Nigerians.

The murder of Kolade Johnson by operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad is one that has brought a lot of bottled-up anger to the surface, resurrected old wounds and expectedly, millions of adding their voices to the ever-increasing call for justice. More importantly, tough questions are being asked of the Nigerian policing architecture. What manner of police force kills her citizens in broad daylight for doing something as innocuous as watching a football match? Many more are asking about the psychological disposition of the men and women who carry guns about across Nigerian towns and cities as law enforcement agents? Perhaps we can stretch things a bit further and demand to know what kind of system churns out men and women who have no regard for human lives as police officers?

But we must resist the temptation to view the brutal murder of Kolade as an isolated event or assume for a minute that the promising young man cut short in his prime is the only victim of a system that feeds on the blood of the innocent. No. Doing so would amount to failing to grasp an even greater danger that stares us in the face.

Did we not read how last year, how a young man was shot and killed around Ogun state by operatives of the Nigerian Customs Services after a minor argument? What rights does a Customs officer have to shoot an unarmed fellow who constituted no threat whatsoever to him nor obstructed the execution of his official assignment?

If you read the papers regularly, no week passes without reports of the murder of an innocent motorist, bus conductor, an Okada rider, a Keke NAPEP operator, a truck driver or just about anyone who does business on the road by trigger-happy policemen. If you investigate the reasons for these senseless murders, you would be pained to realise that so many of these persons may have been shot for failing to pay a bribe at a police checkpoint or for paying “less than was demanded.” My information may not be exactly comprehensive, but I have not read of any other country on earth where it appears the police are issued firearms to kill and maim taxpayers and economically active citizens for failing to “roger.”

In the past 20 years since the nation’s return to democratic rule, Nigeria has had over a dozen Inspector-Generals of police and each has promised to introduce far-reaching reforms but it does appear that it’s all motions and zero movements. Endless directives by the various police bosses to dismantle police checkpoints across the federation have all been outrightly ignored – if not ridiculed by their subordinates in the states and zones who apparently profit from these checkpoints that have since become what a publisher once called “business centres.” Can there be any louder commentary on the morass of indiscipline eating up the police force in Nigeria than the fact that direct orders issued by the number one police officer are scorned?

Interestingly, it is at these checkpoints that many of the “accidental discharges” that lead to the death of innocent road users happen every year. The shameless and brazen demand for bribes from hapless, deprived and struggling Nigerians happen at the checkpoints and as you experience whenever you travel through any of the roads in eastern Nigerian, the checkpoint transactions appear to have been formalised- bribes are given and taken without questions- every party knows what’s expected of him. Unfortunately, it is the newbies, the uninitiated and those who want to “prove stubborn” who pay with their lives.

The Nigerian Police Force has acquired universal notoriety for everything absurd- extortion, harassment, extra-judicial murder, violation of trust and abuse of privileges. It is a shame that the police has failed to reform after endless years of talking about change and transformation, sloganeering and exciting sound bites. It is embarrassing that that yearly, many Nigerian taxpayers lose their lives through the activities of the men and women paid to protect them. Worse still, the fact that no President has deemed it fit to demonstrate the political will to transform the Nigerian police from what it currently is to a professional force of civil men and women offering security services to citizens and residents of Nigeria tells a lot about our priorities as a people.

Decisive action is needed after the heartless and callous murder of Kolade Johnson.

Number one, this matter must never be swept under the carpet. The officers, involved in that show of shame, must be sent to civil court for appropriate trial under the laws of the land. If they are found guilty of murder and conspiracy to commit murder or whatever charges would be levelled against them by the state- they must be treated like every other common criminal and made to serve their sentences- whatever they may be.

Importantly, the entire operations of SARS must be reviewed. Emphasis must be laid on the quality of people recruited into that unit. What kind of characters do we need in a reformed SARS? I don’t know what the universal answer would be, but I am confident that most would recommend a thorough screening of the emotional and psychological makeup of those recruited to fight the horrible menace or armed robbery in Nigeria. Nobody would like to see the replacement of one set of bandits that operate at night with another that function in uniform- operating in broad daylight.

Beyond the police, all security formations in Nigeria must be re-oriented on the weight of responsibilities placed on their shoulders. It must be made clear to our men in uniform, be they customs, police, army, navy or whatever designation they go by that shooting to kill, maim or scare innocent citizens is not part of their job specifications.

Again, the principle of “innocence until proven guilty” must be re-emphasised. Having dreadlocks, being heavy of build, having tattoos, carrying laptop bags or driving a costly vehicle does not in any way qualify anyone as a criminal. If the police believe that these categories of individuals are suspects, then send men on their trail, track their activities, offline and online, until that point when you can incontestably tie them to a known crime.

Rights, especially to life, must never be impeded.

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