THE RECENT shooting of a suspect in broad daylight, under the watchful eyes of the public, has further devalued the image of the Nigeria Police Force. The Force is yet to fully recover from its bruised and battered image after the #EndSARS episode. The Warri killing simply shows that though SARS is no more, its spirit is still moving around and devouring people in cold blood.
I know of no law in this land that empowers the police to arrest and execute a suspect without trial. Yes, a policeman can defend himself when attacked by an armed criminal, and if the criminal dies in the process, that is understandable. But in the case of Ogidi, the young musician, the suspect was already arrested, disabled, and begging for his life – yet he was shot and killed in broad daylight. Until now, I thought only bandits could commit such a dastardly act, knowing they answer to no government or authority.
The colonial police existed to break citizens, to plant fear and enforce subjugation. That was their job. But post-independence policing cannot wear the same uniform. The post-independence police must be the people’s police – measured, civil, human. Excessive force and torture to extract confessions have no place in a free republic. Modern policing has better tools and better training.
The killing has reignited the debate: who is policing the police? Can the police be allowed to act anyhow, even with state arms in their hands? The top hierarchy of the police, vested with managing officers and men, should invest considerable time, energy, and resources in doing so. The current state of the Force, especially the behaviour and actions of personnel, does not bring credit to top management.
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Every professional law enforcement body is supposed to operate under a strict code of conduct. It’s not just about discipline; it’s about legitimacy. The sight of a policeman decently dressed, professionally aesthetic calms the nerves of the public and gives confidence that you are dealing with a decent human being. A police officer with dreadlocks, a punk hairstyle, dyed hair, a tattered uniform, tattooed body, drunk in uniform, or insulting citizens destroys the dignity of the noble policing profession and evoke fear and anxiety.
The state arms the police to protect its citizens from violence. But the state must also protect itself from the police. That is why training, discipline, and oversight are very important – they are the price of legitimacy. When citizens begin to see the police as bandits in uniform, the social contract breaks. That fracture is what birthed EndSARS protests.
Our experience with EndSARS left a bitter taste in the national mouth, and no reasonable Nigerian wants to drink from that cup again. We owe ourselves a duty to fish out and punish the bad eggs – in uniform or out of it – before they sink the ship of state.
Policing is a noble profession. None of us could live peacefully in this country without the police. Where there are no police officers, criminality triumphs. Yes, criminal-minded people try to paint the police in a bad light to turn citizens against them. But life in an unpoliced state is better imagined than experienced.
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Reflect deeply on their role: they stop crime before it happens through patrols, presence, and intelligence, and respond when it does. They keep us safe in our homes, on our roads, in markets, clubs, and amusement centres.
We must appreciate the steps already taken by the IGP. We must also insist the police carry out a detailed investigation to unravel the motive behind Ogidi’s killing. The IGP, hailed by many who have followed his career as a fine and brilliant officer, now faces his true test. Nigerians are waiting – not just for answers, but for justice. Most importantly, the IGP must assure the nation that incidents of this nature will not happen again. Apologies without reform are just eulogies for the next victim.
I had thought the brutality that defined colonial policing would have been buried with colonialism itself.
The colonial police existed to break citizens, to plant fear and enforce subjugation. That was their job. But post-independence policing cannot wear the same uniform. The post-independence police must be the people’s police – measured, civil, human. Excessive force and torture to extract confessions have no place in a free republic. Modern policing has better tools and better training.
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The state is already buckling under the weight of insecurity – killings, kidnappings, maiming – and we rightly blame the government for failing to contain it. Yet, in fairness, the government is not idle. It is fighting, however imperfectly, to stop the bleeding.
We can understand the government’s struggle with insecurity. What we cannot understand – what we must never accept – is an agency of government murdering a suspect without trial. One is a failure of capacity. The other is a betrayal of law.
The killing of Ogidi has reignited the debate on state policing. If Usman Nuhu were posted to his own state, serving his own community, he would not have arrested his tribesman – a man whose relatives he knows – and killed him the way he did Ogidi. The same holds true for an Igbo officer in Igboland, or a Yoruba officer in Yorubaland. Proximity breeds accountability. Anonymity breeds atrocity.
We must appreciate the steps already taken by the IGP. We must also insist the police carry out a detailed investigation to unravel the motive behind Ogidi’s killing. The IGP, hailed by many who have followed his career as a fine and brilliant officer, now faces his true test. Nigerians are waiting – not just for answers, but for justice.
Most importantly, the IGP must assure the nation that incidents of this nature will not happen again. Apologies without reform are just eulogies for the next victim.
