AGGRIEVED, COPS TASTE THE FORBIDDEN FRUIT ...South-South Express, Thursday, February 7, 2002

 

Onuoha Emeaba of the Feature Desk in the report examines the recent strike embarked upon by the rank and file in the Nigeria police and posits that the action appears to have elicited he sympathy of the public.

When the news first hit the street, it was dismissed as mere empty threats. Of course, it couldn’t have been otherwise. For the news itself was attributed to “faceless” policemen. But the tone of the threat suggested that something serious was going to happen. Perhaps the greatest miscalculation was made by the leadership of the force. At least they have tried in their usual ways probably by intimidation to cow the rank and file into back pedaling on the strike action.

Minister of Police Affair, Mr. Steven Akiga said this much when he noted in a recent news conference to address the strike palaver that the Police High Command swing into action immediately the issue was brought to the force. They got it all wronged, for the aggrieved policemen under the aegeis of Junior Police Officers Association (JPOA) in disregard of the threat of being charged for mutiny, had perfected their strategies.

Surprisingly by January 31, the threat to go on strike was no longer ‘faceless’ one. Men of the rank and file in the Nigeria police had gone on strike, not only did they desert their duties post, the policemen equally harassed any of its colleagues who attempted to go to his duty post. In fact prior to the strike action, JPOA had warned that appropriate action, including death would be visited on any of its men who flouted the order.

Again, there was another miscalculation by the Police High Command. While they taught that the strike would be limited to Cross River States were the faceless threat had emanated in the first place, other states were caught in the same hug, for instance at Eleme junction, in Port Harcourt the Rivers State capital where policemen normally cluster for traffic duties, none was available that day for duty. Especially, it was chaos all over as the absence of the policemen gave touts the leeway to take over.

Reports says the strike action was probably felt more in Cross River State. In Calabar the capital for instance, most banks and companies were said to have closed shop for fear of molestation by robbers, and possible attack by armed robbers. For those who have been following the trial of discontents within the police force, it was surprising that the strike action centered around non-challance to their welfare from the early hours of the fateful day till the evening.

The policemen in their 10 point demand urged the Federal Government to raise the salary and allowance of the police constables at par with that of a local Government Councilor. They also demand that all police Officers from the rank of Constables to Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP), who have stayed up to five years in a particular rank should be promoted.

Other demands by the policemen included that all police graduates within the rank and file as well as the inspectors must be promoted to the rank of ASP within the shortest possible time preferable not after than March, 30, 2002. In addition all those with NCE qualification must be promoted to Inspector on or before January 31.

The demands which were endorsed by JPOA chairman Inspector Akpohome Ovie, Publicity Secretary, Sgt. Owunaru Nnaji was to say the least, an unprecedented action in the annals of the Nigeria Police. Now the action expectedly sparked off debate as to whether the policemen could be charged for mutiny.

Although the Minister of police Affairs, Mr. Akiga described the action as mutiny and ordered that the sensitive points abandoned by the striking police officers be manned by the military, the ranks and file of the police were remain perturbed, even the reported arrest of the ring leaders and threats of prosecution appear not to have silenced in the angry policemen. To them, the strike action is one of the dividends of democracy in Nigeria, “At least our plights have been acknowledged by the authority” a policeman who craved anonymity told South-South Express at the Aba Central Police Station, Abia State, and expressed delight that they embarked on the strike.

“But people may see it in different ways, from the government angle, they may think it is wrong for the police to go on strike, but will it be good for someone to keep quiet and die”.

The anonymous policeman however advised the Deputy Inspector General of Police, Alhaji Bukar Ali not to make good his threat of prosecuting the four policemen alleged to have masterminded the strike because as he stated if he tries anything funny like prosecuting the officers, we are going to resist it.

“Can you imagine that the inspector General of Police, Mr Muslia Smith informed the international press that the least paid policeman earns ₦17,000 instead of ₦7,500” the policeman who begged for public sympathy said that today.

As if he was endorsing the thinking of the Junior Police Officers, President Olusegun Obansajo who immediately released the sum of ₦1 billion for the payment of their salaries, also indicted the top hierarchy for negligence. Speaking at a media chat with editors last Monday, Obasanjo had acknowledged the point condition for the Nigeria Police but said that the top hierarchy know why it is so. Obasanjo was like indirectly calling the Inspector General of Police Mr. Musliu Smith to account for the billions of naira released to the police in last year’s budget.  But the Minister of Police Affairs, Mr. but the Minister of Police Affairs, Mr. Steven Akiga like other members of the top echelon of the police insisted that the strike was not necessary, explaining that the force has Its own system of channeling their grievances  to appropriate quarters. Mr Akiga statedin his speech that the action of policemen was a display of flagrant indiscipline which amount to mutiny.

Traditional rulers of Nde Agho autonomous community in Abia State, His Royal highness Eze Barrister Samuel Nwosu Onyeama said in an interview that the strike does not amount to mutiny at all.  “They didn’t intend to disturb the government of the day, they want to be heard because government take care of the senior echelon of the police without looking at other ranks”, he said.

Onyeama who is former speaker of old Imo House of Assembly during the second republic and a member of the constituent Assembly said that the police has the right to form their group. The society is not statie, what happened in the colonial era when the police were cowed should not operate now, adding that I is time we give people opportunity to fight for their right using legal and constitutional means.

The learned Monarch however, admitted that since the police force came into being in the country there has not been any history of strike. “But people may see it in different ways, from the government angles, they may think it is wrong for the police to go on strike, but will it be good for someone to keep quiet and die,” he quired stressing that the man who keeps silence when oppressed die.

 

 

A NATION RAVAGED BY RISING WAVES OF INSECURITY --- 2002 Features write up

 

Even with repeated assurances from the government, Nigeria are yet to witness an improvement in level of security around them and as features writer, ONUOHA EMEABA notes in the report, the fears are deepening day by day.

They look frail and fagged out, fidgeting like recalcitrant pupils standing before a harsh head teacher. Governor Bola Tinubu of Lagos State, the Commandant of the Ikeja Military Cantonment, Brigadier George Emdia, and Mr. Mike Okiro, the Lagos State Police Commissioner who bore the burden of breaking the bad news to Nigerians were all panic stricken.

Perhaps to underscore the gravity of the disaster, and the need to communicate to a heterogeneous society with different linguistic backgrounds, they had to convey the message of the bomb blast in the three major languages, Hausa, Igbo and Yoruba. But whether the confusion that trailed the explosion allowed them to stay glued to their television sets to decode the broadcast was another question.

Indeed the massage was terrifying. About 400 bombs stockpiled at the Ikeja Cantonment had exploded and within a narrow time frame of four , more than 2000 Nigerians who ran for their lives amid a stampede, and as Nigerians were grappling to come to terms with the incident, another tragedy struck. One of the busiest settlement in Lagos, Idiaraba was engulfed in ethnic violence between Hausa and Yorubas. At the last count, the casualty figures were still being contested. While some media reports put the figure at 100, another put at a whooping 400.

The above painted picture is that of a nation which in the last two years, has been engulfed in violence and untold tragedy. From the North to the South the nation is boiling. Tragedies occasioned by minor squabbled have become a permanent feature. Aside, there have been cases of clear assassination which many attribute to the tense political environment ahead the 2003 election.

Take for instance the South-West which has the distinction of being a hot bed of violence especially during democratic elections. In the region which harbored the often orchestrated politically monolithic Yoruba ethnic group, there are signs that  before the election proper, the “wild” syndrome is bound to replay itself, and no other tragedy depicts this cycles of violence, then the brutal murder of Chief Bola Ige, Nigeria’s Attorney General, and Minister of Justics December, 23, 2001 at his house in Ibadan.

Ige’s murder, many believe, remains a disgrace to the nation, and the reason for such thinking might not be unconnected with the fact that the late Yoroba politician had a detachment of security personnel attached to him. The question many are asking up till today is “why did all the policemen attached to the Minister left to eat when it was obvious that the atmosphere within the area was pregnant with violence? The general thinking among Nigeria’s in the last four months has been that if a cabinet murder could be murdered easily, then ordinary citizens could not be said to be very safe.

Even before Ige’s murder, another elected politicians Mr. Odumayo Olabgagu was equally murdered in cold blood by unknown assasins. Many however say Olagbagu’s assassination, even as a member of Ogun State House of Assembly, cannot be divoiced from the political disagreements that have rocked the state for the past month.

Away from politically motivated conflicts, Lagos has remained a hot-bed of ethnic-religious conflicts in the past one year. It is always, either there is religious violence in Kano and reprisal actions taking place in Lagos, or vice-versa. The greatest fear here however, is that Lagos and indeed the entire South-East is fast becoming very insecure for Nigerians, and it is quite predictable and by 2003, the fight for supremacy between the Alliance for Democracy (AD) and the people’s Democracy Party (PDP), will aggravate the security solution.

In the South-East of Nigeria where the Igbos inhabit, the picture is the same. Perhaps what appeared to have posed serious security threats in the whole of the South-East have been the wave of armed robbery incidents which before the advent of democracy, crippled the conduct of business. Unfortunately, the insecurity situation which was gradually being tackled is again taking the dangerous twist. The sit ration is not even helped by the growing political reveries among the various political leaders within the zone.

Now, consider Abia State where the formation of the dreaded Bakassi Boys, a vigilante group almost brought criminal activities to a near zero level in the area, especially Aba in year 2000. The irony now is that all same group formed to protect the citizens has been instigating violence on its own. The cities of Aba, Umuahia, like many others cities in Nigeria, are filled with horroful tales, whether suicide, rapes, robbery and other crimes.

Nothing perhaps epitomizes the state of insecurity than the decision of the Abia State government to engage the sevice of the private security firm to secure the government house. Many of course, regard the section as a vote of no confidence of the police, and even the Bakassi boys which the government has aided so much financially. Regartably too, the various vigilante groups that emerged spountanouesly as a reaction to the upsurge in criminal activities, and as popular alternatives to the formalized security agencies appeared to have metamorphosed into machineries for silencing the opposition, name it Odua People Congress (OPC), Bakassi boys, Arewa, or Egbesu boys all have become lame dog outfits feeding fat from political leaders.

In the North, frequent incidents of religious riots have made the area a no-go zone for those who have their lives from Kano, Kaduna, Sokoto, Markudi and recently, Jos, the story is that of gory tales of brazen disregard for human lives. Unlike other zone, the crises in these areas are purely religious with political undertones and that seems to have reached a crescendo since the introduction of the sharia legal system. Kaduna and Kano, in the last two years, have witness the lost of more than 4000 lives. The greatest shock came from Jos in the middle of last year, when Christian and Muslems engages themselves in a fierce battle.

At the end, the entire city was devastated and many lives lost. Even the Middle Belt which has long remained an an attachment of the north remain a tatters. Late last year, a bloody conflict between the Tivs and Jukuns inhabiting Taraba, Nassarawa and Benue States hold the country to ransom and at the last count, both soldiers and civilians were counted among the dead.

In the South-South geo-political, the conflict appear to be mostly communal and political. Although such conflicts have been ranging for a long time probably as a result of the distrust between the multinational companies and the host communities, there are equally fears that the insecurity might deepen with the incoming elections.

In Rivers State where communal conflicts have often snowballed into political crises, areas such as Okirika, Abua Odual, Ogu/Bolo and Ogbakiri have turned a ghost town in the last two years. Analysis say the situation is likely to  worsen next year with the missing opposition against the ruling party.

Bayelsa their next door neighbor is not faring better. Late last year, there were reports that most commissioners and top civil servants had fled their lives residence at the Opolo hausing estate owing to insecurity. At present, many of the commissioners are said to be moving about with up to four armed security personnel.

With the sporadic loss of lives and other threats to lives and property, observers believe that Nigerians are whirling to their graves every day. They have concluded that the security system has failed and no one can sleep with his two eyes closed in Nigeria. For instance, Mr. Okey Uzoho, a legal practitioner and political scientist considers the level of insecurity as a sign of dissatisfaction with the government.

He said that what those perpetrating the crime have done is to send money to government and to Nigerians that if things continues the way it is, then violence would overtake everywhere. “When people are not given the freedom to decide on the way they want to go, such people resort to violence because they thought that with such action, they can prove their point,” Uzoho noted, suggesting that the government should open the space to that whatever grievances people have can be tabled for discussion.

“When people are not given the freedom to decide on the way they want to go, such people resort to violence because they thought that with such action, they can prove their point,”

However another lawyer and a retried police officer, Friday Nwose said both the government and the security system are faulty. He said those in government should be blamed for making efforts to effectively use available security operatives to protect lives and properties of the citizen.

Nwosu particularly indicted politicians saying that when they find themselves in governance, they behaved as if they will die with the office. “that is why they can perpetuate any crime that will jeopardise the security of the country” he said. He attributed the lackadaisical attitude of the police to lack of adequate education. “If the police are given adequate training, they would know what to do at a point in time to protect lives of the people. Police officers should have in-service training at least they should have a diploma in law or any other social sciences” the retired police officers cum lawyers lamented.

He added that it is lack of adequate training that makes the police succumb to intimidation and blackmail, thereby joepardising the security of the nation and the people. “They need to be emancioated from mental slavery in order to do their works of determing and preventing crime in the society,”he opined.