Is there truly a Nigeria Police Force?

By Emmanuel Onwubiko

“The police are not here to create disorder, they’re here to preserve disorder.” – Richard J. Daley.

Under the Nigerian Constitution, Section 214(1) establishes the Nigeria Police Force in writing. Under the extant police Act signed in the year 2020 by President Muhammadu Buhari the police is assigned the legal obligations of law enforcement and there are a plethora of provisions on sanctions that awaits police operative who is unprofessional and indiscipline. However, from empirical data, the Nigeria Police exists not for the commoners but the police has been overwhelmed and overpowered by indiscipline just as majority of the operatives are not as professionally inclined as the laws, precepts and expectations of Nigerians would want them to be.

In this piece therefore, I’m presenting just four samples of encounters between Nigerians (public) and members of the Nigeria Police force so as to establish a very straightforward premise and an emphatic statement that Nigeria doesn’t have a police force as it should be and as it is all around the World in such jurisdictions like the United States of America the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China and even South Africa as it were. Many reasons and excuses are adduced to say these are why Nigeria Police force is truly not a positive force to reckon with and is anything but a professional law enforcement institution but simply a contraption with persons made heads of the different departments but whose style is rudderless and lawless and because there is absence of oversight responsibility by the dysfunctional Police Service Commission, what we have can’t truly be described as a standard Police force judging from universal pedigrees of similar institutions in other foreign jurisdictions aforementioned.

It would have been educative to begin with the encounter between a businessman in Anambra State and the Anambra State Police Command in what is clearly a case of policemen turning their detention facilities, using their uniforms and guns paid by taxpayers to kidnap, blackmail, extort a Nigerian whom they framed up in some phantom charges and made him cough out #18 million from inside the police cell in Awkuzu Anambra State in the same notorious SARS FACILITY in which many youngsters of Igbo origin were framed up by the police essentially led by an Igbo born police officer and killed in some of the most troubling cases of extrajudicial execution of citizens which was one of the factors that instigated the nation-wide protests by youths against police brutality two years back.

But I will start with what just happened in Nasarawa State when a former Federal commissioner of the National Population Commission was attacked and killed even as the Police and soldiers he invited never assisted to rescue him.

Indeed the police in the Nasarawa State’s Command sent only two police operatives who had one gun in between themselves but when they got to the crime scene and saw the sophisticated guns been wielded by the hoodlums, the policemen fled and left the distressed Nigerian to his cruel fate.

The story was narrated by a former information minister Mr. Labaran Maku and the survivor of that dastardly attack and daughter of the victim of this gruesome killing.

The narrative is that the former Minister of Information and ex-governorship aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party in Nasarawa State, Labaran Maku, spoke with a journalist COLLINS SUNDAY about the assassination of his campaign agent, Zakari Umaru-Kigbu, by some gunmen last Saturday and here are the issues the erstwhile minister raised. Asked what was his relationship with the late Zakari Umaru-Kigbu, who was assassinated last Saturday in his home in Nasarawa, the former Minister fought back tears and asserted that the victim of this crime against humanity was his brother, friend and political ally.

Hear him: “We met many years ago in Lagos State. We were quite young then but we supported each other and lived happily.

At that time, he was working with the Nigerian Air Force. He later left the job and we both returned to Nasarawa State. Since our return, he had served as president of our cultural group, the Eggon Cultural and Development Association; he also worked with the state-owned Isa Mustapha Agwai Polytechnic in Lafia and he served as the National Population Commission Federal Commissioner in Nasarawa State.

He worked with the military using his secondary school certificate but after that he acquired two different degrees in Mass Communication and Law. He was waiting to go to law school while he was also studying to be a PhD holder at the Nasarawa State University in Keffi.

How did you receive the news that he was assassinated by some gunmen?

I am pained that for close to two hours when the criminals were trying to break into his house, Zakari tried calling the police and the military but they were not able to rescue him. Some people went to report at the police station in the area and the police sent only two personnel who came with just one gun, but when they noticed that the criminals were fully armed, they went back and left Zakari and his family in the situation.

What surprises me is that his house is not far from the road in Azuba Bashayi, Lafia North Development Area in Lafia Local Government Area of the state. By the time the military arrived, he had already been killed and they took two of his children away.

The man who was killed in the presence of his daughter served Nigeria Airforce but even the military did not come to his rescue and this and the circumstances of his brutal hacking to death constitute what was described as traumatic by the daughter for finding her father dying in the pool of his blood.

Hear her: “I am the fifth child of Zakari Umaru-Kigbu and I am his only daughter. My name is Umaru Hajiya Asheku.

Where were you last week Saturday at the time of the attack that claimed his life?

On that fateful day, May 28, 2022, I was in the parlour of our house with my father, mother and siblings; we were watching a programme on television.

How exactly did the incident happen?

While we were watching the programme, my father and mother went to their rooms to sleep. Some of my siblings also went to sleep because the incident happened around 11pm. I was left in the parlour with one of my brothers, who was transferring some files to his computer. Suddenly, we heard a gunshot in our compound. One of my siblings immediately ran to lock the kitchen door leading to the backyard. Some of us ran to our father’s room to hide while others went to hide in our mother’s room. The criminals, who were fully armed, forced the entrance door open and were coming straight to our father’s room. When my father noticed that they were coming towards his room, he told all of us in the room to go out and hide in the storeroom.

The attackers tried to break his door but they could not because it’s a strong door. They began to search for us. When we noticed that they could easily find us in the storeroom, we went into our mother’s toilet to hide while praying that God should help us out of the situation.

They kept searching for us in the house and they were wondering where we could be. So, while they were searching all over the house, they heard us whispering in the toilet where we were hiding. They then asked us to come out or they would break down the door and shoot all of us. Because we were scared, we refused to come out. So, they told some of their members who were standing outside to shoot us through the toilet window. So, they started shooting but we were all bending down while they were shooting.

As the attack went on, my father made several attempts to call the Nigeria Police Force and the military to come to our aid but he did not get a positive response at that moment. So, he had no other option but to come out of his room in order for him to protect us and that was when they shot him. When we heard the gunshot, we all rushed out and saw him on the ground in the pool of his blood.

How many were the attackers?

Those that came into the house were four in number, but others were in the compound. We also heard from neighbours that other criminal gang members were strategically stationed in several corners of the street on that fateful night.”

The daughter said also: “When they came that night, they were shouting that we should open the door because the days of my father were over. They said they must kill him before leaving the house that night.

What were your father’s last moments like? Did he say anything?

When they shot him and we all came out and saw blood all over the place, he looked at us passionately but could not speak because he was already weak.

He was 60 years old. How many wives and children did he leave behind?

He had one wife and six children.

Two of your sisters were said to have been kidnapped by the attackers. What are their names and ages? Are they students?

I read in the news that two of my sisters were kidnapped but it is not correct because I am the only biological daughter in the family.

The people kidnapped are my immediate elder brother and our cousin who lives with us. And yes, they are students. My brother’s name is Umaru Musa Anzaku; he is 22 years old while my cousin is Hadiza Zakari. She is about 30 years old now.

They kidnapped them after killing our father and they took all our phones except my father’s phone that he was using to call for help, which he later put somewhere in his room”.

Asked if the hoodlums called the family to make any demands, she said Yes, they called us. They demanded N60m as condition to release my brother and cousin.

At the moment, I have not heard that they made any arrest.

The second of the four subsets of experiences about the Nigeria Police Force is replicated in the press statement by the HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA titled “HURIWA tasks IGP on police officers accused of kidnapping, blackmailing and extortion of N18 million from Anambra businessman”.

The story goes thus: Prominent Civil rights advocacy group- HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) has expressed disappointment and sadness at the lack of action by the Inspector-General of Police Alhaji Usman Alkali Baba on a subsisting petition against Mr. martin ngoesina okechukwu, Chile ajani, csp Patrick agbazue, officer in charge of scid-annex awkuzu, Mr. osim, the admini officer, Mr. uche chukwudi (IPO) for alleged unlawful kidnap, detention and extortion of a whooping sum of N18 million from a businessman Mr. John Elochukwu.

HURIWA said it was reprehensible, despicable and thoroughly embarrassing for the Nigeria Police Force that such a weighty allegations of kidnap of a citizen under the guise of ‘lawful’ arrest and his arbitrary detention in the same notorious SARS FACILITY in Awkuzu Anambra State and the extortion of his N18 million which was allegedly paid by the alleged police hostage even whilst still been locked up at the police detention facility, that such a serious allegations are not being rapidly investigated by the Inspector-General of Police is a matter that President Muhammadu Buhari and the National police Council should take action.

In a statement by the National Coordinator Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, HURIWA stated thus: ” The Inspector-General of Police must immediately take open, transparent steps to probe the damaging allegations of the use of government security institution, facility, the Nigerian Police force Anambra state police command state criminal investigation department (scid) annex awkuzu unit oyi local government area, Anambra state of Nigeria, to kidnap, arrest, detain, intimidate and extort eigteen million naira only (N18,000,000.00) ransom from a citizen Mr. John elochukwu, which was withdrawn from account 2140743696, uba bank and allegedly paid into Mr. ikechukwu obiada’s account (omaba block industry) to secure his release from them.

HURIWA said her attention has been called to the embarrassing accusations which according to it must be rapidly confronted by the IGP himself because this matter of gross human rights violations that borders on false imprisonment, blackmail, kidnapping and theft of the humonguous cash belonging to Chief John Elochukwu of Umunnakwa Agwa Village, Ifite-Nteje, Oyi Local Government Area, Anambra State of Nigeria, if left unattended to as the Inspector-General of Police Alhaji Usman Alkali Baba is treating the issue, will further be seen by members of the international community as another concrete evidence of the damaging report made about the Nigeria Police force by the United States Department of State in its most recent yearly human rights reports.

HURIWA asserted that the States Department of the United States Government reports that significant human rights abuses included credible reports of: unlawful and arbitrary killings by both government and nonstate actors; forced disappearances by the government, terrorists, and criminal groups; torture and cases of cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by the government and terrorist groups; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrests and detention.

HURIWA said information available to it indicates that the victim of police arbitrary arrests, detention, and extortion of N18 million Chief John Elochukwu client is a businessman who has an operational base at Onitsha, Anambra State, but often stays at his abode of Umunnakwa Agwa Village, Ifite-Nteje, due to its nearest to Onitsha.

HURIWA affirmed that “We were however informed that on 20th February, 2022 at about 3:00am while he was sleeping in his house at the village, his premises was surrounded by some people who claimed to be Officers from the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) Annex Awkuzu Unit and their mission was to get him arrested on account of a purported petition from the Inspector-General of Police, Force Headquarters, Abuja against him. The officers, however, had no search warrant for their mission, but they themselves as police officers (as claimed) from the Anambra State Police Command Criminal Investigation Department (SCID) Annex Awkuzu Unit, insisted on searching his entire premises, and after searching his house, they did not find any incriminating item(s) and still got him arrested with serious beating and subsequently detained him in their office.”

“That when he queried why they were embarrassing him, according to the leader of the group who arrested him, he was told that it was because of the petition against him from the Inspector-General of Police Office, Abuja, which they were executing.

He also told us that he requested them to make available, the said petition but none was brought/given or shown to him, which ordinarily ought to be the right procedure.

But they detained him for 5 days and while he is still in detention, the Officer-In-Charge of (SCID) Awkuzu Unit Annex CSP Patrick Agbazue, the investigating Police Officer Mr. Uche Chukwudi and Mr. Martin Ngoesina Okechukwu and Chike Ajani whom the O/C SARS uses as an alleged front in their alleged Kidnapping for Ransom Business brought him out of the cell around 3:00am, and took him to the CSP Patrick Agbazue’s office and informed him that they have agreed that he should pay the sum of Eighteen Million Naira only (N18,000,000.00) to secure his release from them, if not, he will be wasted that night and this was with much threat to his life by them.”

“He told us that it was then he knew that it was actually kidnappers that took him, but were only using the (SCID) Annex Awkuzu Unit facility to perfect their act(s) in connivance with Mr. Martin Ngoesina Okechukwu and CSP Patrick Agbazue the Officer-In-Charge of SCID Annex Awkuzu Unit. He then became afraid of his life considering the level of inhumane treatment they were melting on him, agreed to their ransom bid. It was Mr. Chike Ajani who went to UBA Bank, brought and returned the transfer mandate form used to remove money from our client’s account. He eventually paid them N15,000,000.00 (Fifteen Million Naira only), while N3,000,000.00 (Three Million Naira only) was given cash to them. He was immediately released on 25th February, 2022 without any mention of the reason(s) why he was detained.”

HURIWA is therefore urging President Muhammadu Buhari to direct the Inspector-General of Police Alhaji Usman Alkali Baba to expeditiously investigate this damaging allegations with the view to adopting law based approach to retrieve the allegedly stolen money of the businessman from the police officers as alleged and then to use the lawful means to bring the police officers to face the full weight of the law should the allegations be confirmed to be true as alleged by the victim of alleged Police kidnap and theft of N18 million in Anambra State, South East of Nigeria.

The other case is that of a 12 year old Gbagyi girl raped by her Igbo neighbour in Kabusa village which we handled even as an Igbo born human rights activist in my capacity as the founder and team leader of the HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA (HURIWA) and the statement we authored asked the police as follows: “HURIWA seeks justice for 12-year-old victim of sexual assault”.

The story is as follows: “Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has urged the Federal Capital Territory Police Command to ensure that justice is served in the alleged sexual abuse case involving a 12-year-old girl in Kabusa village, Abuja.

HURIWA, in a statement, by the National Coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, said it visited Kabusa Police Station, on the outskirts of Abuja, to ascertain the progress of the Police investigation on the alleged assault by her neighbour, a 54-year-old father of three, Mr. Ikemba, an Iron Bender.

According to the group, on reaching the police station, it saw the alleged victim and her poor parents, apparently waiting for the Divisional Police Officer (DPO), to refer the matter to the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID) within the Federal Capital Territory Command.

The group said it ascertained that the teenage victim was kept at Kabusa Police Station from Saturday, when the matter was reported by neighbours till Monday afternoon, on the excuse that the victim was kept to obtain a medical report because according to the Investigative Police Officer (IPO), the police did not want the evidence of the alleged rape to be tampered with if she was allowed to go home with her the parents

The group appealed to the Federal Government, especially the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs to liaise with the police to facilitate quick medical examination of victims of sexual assaults because keeping the victim in a police station and detaining the suspect could create the impression that the alleged victim is being criminalised.

While appealing to the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs and the National Human Rights Commission to monitor the progress of this matter to ensure that justice is done, it also urged the FCT Police Commissioner to ensure that justice is done to this vulnerable child.

The statement said: “HURIWA hopes that the Police will under no circumstances compromise this matter of serious sexual violations of a 12-year-old girl by a man old enough to be her Grandfather.

“HURIWA noticed that the community members of the alleged offender were in their numbers at the Kabusa police station, apparently seeking a negotiated settlement.

“HURIWA is therefore calling on the Police in the FCT Command to take this matter to its logical conclusion.”

HURIWA said it is in possession of the findings of the ECWA Community Health Initiative, which runs ECWA Health Clinic in Kabusa and based on what can be read from the record, dated May 22, 2022, the report affirmed that sperm was found in the teenager’s private part.

“This was confirmed verbally by the female police operatives we interacted with, who were not happy that the father of the teenager did not report the first incident, in which the same suspect sexually assaulted her, but the father said the recent case was so brazen because neighbours were the ones that caught the suspect, sexually abusing his daughter.

“HURIWA was also told by the police during the cause of our visit that the police has in its possession photographic evidence of alleged penetration by the accused rapist and that it is awaiting a final copy of the medical examination just as HURIWA is in possession of the laboratory analysis confirming the alleged sexual violations.

“As members of the Human Rights community, we encourage the police to ensure that justice is done even as we make strong case to the Federal Government for the massive funding of police at the rural areas so such cases of sexual violations of children by adults are rapidly attended to.”

HURIWA petitions PSC, demands identity of policemen that invaded Imo Church

The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA, has petitioned the Police Service Commission (PSC) to reveal the identity of the police officers, who invaded a church in Imo State to arrest Uche Nwosu.

In the petition, signed by the National Coordinator of HURIWA, Emmanuel Onwubiko, it also demanded that the Imo State Commissioner of Police (CP) should be invited to explain his role in the invasion.

“We are considering other measures, but we will first allow the PSC to exercise its powers to sanction the lawless and reckless police officers for their professional misconduct in Imo State and for allowing themselves to be used as political cannon folders in the party squabble within the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Imo State,” the petition reads.

HURIWA noted that their action was necessitated by the fact that it was disappointed by the invasion during a church service by operatives of the Nigeria Police Force, who were masked and operated in the same manner of unknown gunmen and terrorists.

“The armed police officers, who wore no identification tags and uniforms entered the church and breached the sanctity of the altar of God in their attempt to arrest Nwosu, who is always guarded by armed policemen.

“But this time, his security officers, were completely unarmed in the church with his family members, friends and hundreds of worshippers who were in the church service to honour the late matriarch of the Nwosu’s family,” it said.

It said contrary to the video evidence and belated official confirmation of the Imo State Police Command, Nwosu was arrested by the police right in the church after shooting sporadically in the midst of worshippers.

“The official statement from the Imo State Police Command came several hours after the news had trended that those who invaded the church to arrest (abduct) Nwosu, were either kidnappers or unknown gunmen.

Since the official confirmation by the Imo State Police Command, reports had confirmed breach of professional ethics, code of conduct and violation of the Police Act 2020.

“Clearly, the terrorist conduct of armed and hooded police operatives offend several provisions of the extant Act of 2020 and this calls for an investigation by the PSC,” it added.

The last story is about the invasion of a Church in Imo State by the Police from the IGP’s office on the alleged instigation of the Imo State’s controversial governor who as alleged used his Chief Security officer to perpetrate the horrendous crime of going after his political opponent Rochas Okorocha and followed his Son-in-law right into his Anglican parish in his hometown where he had gone for his Mum’s burial to arrest him with police men who wore neither uniforms nor carried identification. These police invaders of the Church shot sporadically inside the Church even as hundreds of worshippers who had turned up for the solemn event scampered for safety. The Inspector-General of Police did nothing about those who carried out this attack reminiscent or how kidnappers operate and after two months without action to sanction these policemen, the HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION OF NIGERIA went to the Federal High Court and filed a suit seeking for mandates to compel the Police Service Commission to investigate the invasion but for a month and half, the Chief Judge of Federal High Court John Tsoho failed to assign the matter so we withdrew it from the court since we have been denied justice by the Court which has become an appendage of the lawless executive arm of government under President Muhammadu Buhari.

The first action we took was reported thus: “HURIWA petitions PSC, demands identity of policemen that invaded Imo Church”.

The story said the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA, has petitioned the Police Service Commission (PSC) to reveal the identity of the police officers, who invaded a church in Imo State to arrest Uche Nwosu.

Since the official confirmation by the Imo State Police Command, reports had confirmed breach of professional ethics, code of conduct and violation of the Police Act 2020.

“Clearly, the terrorist conduct of armed and hooded police operatives offend several provisions of the extant Act of 2020 and this calls for an investigation by the PSC,” it added.

These variegated cases of absolute nonchalant attitudes of the Inspector-General of Police Alhaji Usman Alkali Baba shows the most brazen sign of the existential collapse of the Nigeria Police Force and that the institution exists barely on paper because the IGP does not care even if the entire police institution collapses physically on his head if he has refused to demonstrate any sign of functional and effective leadership.

The Inspector-General of Police Alhaji Usman Alkali Baba needs to wake up or be made to wake up and be a leader who would restore the dead policing institution back to life and not to continue to behave like the official UNDERTAKER OF THE NIGERIA POLICE FORCE.

*Mr. ONWUBIKO is head of the HURIWA and former was NATIONAL COMMISSIONER of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) of Nigeria.