The police authorities could do more to put their house in order
In a move which underlines the widespread concerns about the wave of violent attacks on officers and men of the Nigeria Police, the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mr Ibrahim Idris, recently offered a N5 million reward to anyone with useful information that could lead to the arrest of the criminal gangs taking out his officers and men. No doubt, the spate of violent attacks on law enforcement agents across the country deserves such desperation.
Within a space of two weeks, no fewer than 11 policemen were gunned down by hoodlums. It started on 2nd July when seven policemen on patrol duty were brutally murdered at the Galadimawa roundabout, Abuja, by bandits in an incident described as target killings. Few days later, four other members of the force on patrol in Edo State were ambushed and killed by gunmen. Also in this bloody month of July, four policemen were felled in Kaduna just as two policemen were killed by some criminal gangs in Lokoja during an alleged failed assassination attempt on controversial Senator Dino Melaye.
So dreary has the situation become that the police authorities in Nasarawa last week had to engage the services of vigilance groups to help apprehend some bandits who allegedly killed one of their men in the Wamba Council Area of the state, the same week some herdsmen in Ardo Kola Council in Taraba State killed a policeman along with six others.
It is unfortunate that gang attacks and general banditry has now become commonplace across the country in addition to the security challenges created by the Boko Haram insurgency in the North East. Yet the rate at which police blood is being spilled is becoming increasingly alarming. Only recently, during the coordinated robbery attacks on six banks in Offa, Kwara State, no fewer than nine policemen were murdered in cold blood. By the time these are added to hundreds of others savagely brought down by militants, suicide-bombers and others felled in the heat of battle against the Islamic militants in the North East, the weight of the brazen assault on law enforcement agents can really be worrying.
These killings have raised a lot of worries not only about the capacity and capability of the force, they also undermine the security of the nation and indeed the democratic process. Some of the pertinent questions are: How long can this go on for a country that has one of the poorest civilian-police ratio in the world? If those who are trained to protect the public could be so casually brought down, what is the fate of the ordinary man on the street? But then, why should we expect so much from a police we give so little? Why should we entrust the security of the nation to a force that is ill-trained, ill-equipped and badly motivated?
Unfortunately, while the rot in the police continues, the IGP seems more interested in the politics of 2019 for the incumbent government. Yet, earlier in the month police officers at the heart of the war against Boko Haram in Maiduguri, Borno State, took to the streets to protest five months of unpaid allowances.
When he assumed duty in 2016, Idris vowed that he would do everything possible to ensure that “our streets, neighbourhoods and communities remain safe.” Three years on, the country is enveloped in pervasive fear and insecurity. Armed robberies, kidnappings and other allied crimes have become a routine affair. Even the police whose officers and men are supposed to protect the people and restore law and order are under siege. In case the IGP has forgotten his core mandate, we hereby restate for him: to restore a measure of order not only for the ordinary citizen but also within the rank and file.
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