Police brutality in Ughelli reprehensible
Nigeria Police
JUST when Nigerians think that the police will get better after nearly 25 years of the Fourth Republic, they are getting crueller. Openly, brutal officers teargassed and shot at unarmed women in the Oteri-Ughelli community in the Ughelli North Local Government Area of Delta State on Monday during a peaceful protest. The women were protesting police harassment and extortion of youths in the community. In their bid to disperse the protesters, police fired teargas and shot at them, injuring some. Deploying excessive force at unarmed female protesters is reprehensible, and the overreaction is uncalled for.
The Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, should take charge and quickly entrench the rules of engagement between the police and the public before his tenure descends into infamy.
The incident shows that democracy has yet to take firm roots in Nigeria. Put differently, the action of the police is a throwback to the brutal era of despotism in which the military harassed, humiliated, beat, imprisoned, and killed Nigerians mercilessly.
The optics were ghastly. Armed with only leaves and placards, the police turned against the women with teargas and guns. This is double jeopardy for the women. The major complaint was the harassment and extortion of young people.
According to The PUNCH, the police in the community regularly arrest young people on errands on trumped charges. The women alleged that police usually collected between N150,000 and N200,000 to release them. A community leader added that because of police extortion of commercial motorcyclists, women returning from the market in the evening had to trek home.
The second is that instead of the police allowing the women to express their grievances, they beat them, teargassed, and shot them.
After decades of existence, there is still a culture of impunity in the ranks of the Nigeria Police Force. It is a constitutional right to protest in Nigeria, which the aggrieved women exercised. The police have no right to abridge the right to protest.
Unfortunately, Nigeria is replete with cases of police brutality. In 2019, a 100-level student at the Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, Oluwaseyi Kehinde, was reportedly shot dead by the police while protesting poor electricity in Oye and Ikole-Ekiti, Ekiti State.
In 2020, abuse, harassment, and extortion of youths by the Special Anti-Robbery Squad triggered the #EndSARS protests. After days of agitation, the police and the military violently put down the protests at the Lekki Tollgate in Lagos.
Despite the #EndSARS movement, police brutality remains. Police fired tear gas to disperse students of the University of Lagos who were peacefully protesting the over 200 per cent hike in tuition fees in September.
In February, police officers dispersed the sacked workers of the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital, Ile-Ife, with gunshots, tear gassing, and other ammunition.
Indeed, Nigeria’s human rights outlook is disheartening. According to the US-based Human Rights and Rule of Law Index by the Global Economy, Nigeria is ranked as one of the countries with the worst human rights and rule of law violations worldwide. It is in the 21st position, sharing the abysmal profile with Ethiopia (17), Bahrain (18), Tajikistan (19), Afghanistan (20), and Saudi Arabia (22).
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have repeatedly raised concerns over the high human rights abuses perpetrated by the police.
Egbetokun is fast losing control. His silence on these incidents is disturbing. The IG is a product of democracy but the police under him have not changed their brutal ways; he should rein in the tyranny of his officers.
The rising police brutality challenges President Bola Tinubu’s credentials as a democrat. He must put his foot down on the excesses of the police.
The Ughelli women should consider litigation for the violation of their rights.
