The catch phrase, “Police Is Your Friend” has proved to be an abhorrent paradox against the character deficit of the force, chief among which are extortion, extra-judicial killings, bribery and corruption.
As the first contact in the line of defence against crime, the significance of police engagement with the public cannot be under-estimated, but, in many reported cases, lack of transparency, humaneness and accountability have become second nature to the cops.
While the police deserve public adulation where they demonstrate gallantry and professionalism, they more often make a mess of it when they offer brazen falsehoods as cover ups to avoid culpability in cases where cops are found wanting. The force seems to have perfected this unsavoury unofficial creed to the public’s greatest amazement.
Such scenario played out in the questionable death of Ibrahim Momodu, a final-year student of Science Laboratory Technology at the University of Benin, UNIBEN. According to police claims, Momodu had attempted to shoot at police team led by Mrs. Carol Afegbua, a Chief Superintendent of Police, CSP, and the Divisional Police Officer DPO of Ogida Police Station, Benin, when he was flagged down. But before he could purportedly do so, he was shot at.
The police later buried Momodu, without alerting anyone of his death. The claim was better embellished by the Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, of the Edo State Police Command, Moses Eguavoen, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, DSP, with an assertion that a Russian made cut-to-size double barrel gun was found on him. The official lie went thus: “On May 27, 2013 about 8.20pm, operatives at Ogida Division led by the DPO, while on routine patrol within the area intercepted a cyclist and another with an unregistered motorcycle at Obayuwana Junction on Siluko Road, Benin City. The suspect immediately brought out a Russian made cut-to-size double barrel gun, but the policemen, noticing his action, responded swiftly and shot the suspect later known as Ibrahim Momodu who died on his way to the hospital.”
After the body of Momodu was exhumed and examination of his corpse carried out, a pathologist report showed that Momodu was shot thrice on his back and not in the legs, as the police earlier claimed.
Another recent victim of police extra-judicial killing was nine-year-old Oluwatimilehin Ebun. He was killed by a police stray bullet on 13 June, at Mile 12, Lagos. Timilehin, a basic 3 student of Royal Scholars International School, Ikorodu, was in company of his parents, who were travelling in a Nissan Pathfinder Sports Utility Vehicle, marked HD 844 EKY.
As it is usual style of the police to avoid culpability, a statement by the Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Ngozi Braide, claimed that the deceased was hit during a robbery attack in the area. Following an investigation by a team of detectives attached to the Homicide Department of the State Criminal Investigation Department, Panti, Lagos, the policemen were on the trail of an errant commuter bus driver who allegedly resisted arrest.
It was revealed that the bullet came off the rifle of Sergeant Rasaq Alowonle attached to Ketu Police Station.
The police must be humane and stop denying that the people are dying while they are happily pulling the trigger. They should justify that the police are friends of law-abiding citizens by not killing innocent people on the streets with reckless abandon.
Source: PM News
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