The
killing of Santos (Nwabueze) Korie by policemen around Daleko Bridge,
Lagos for driving against traffic and the slow pace of investigation by
the state police into the incident have lengthened the cases of
unresolved killings by policemen in the state.
PUNCH Metro investigations
revealed that in nearly all reported cases, the police neither bring
investigations to conclusive end nor prosecute the alleged killers of
the victims.
In Korie’s case, two policemen-Iguh and
Ameh- were arrested, but the police authorities were quick to state that
the killers were probably hired assassins.
An autopsy on the corpse, released a
week after his death, said Korie died as a result of a “perforating
gunshot injury to the left zygomatic area with skull fracture,
subarachoin haemorrhage and cereberal contusion.”
There had been no further comment on the
investigation since the suspects were taken to the State Criminal
Investigative Department at Yaba.
On January 8, 2013, a year after he was
shot dead by the then Divisional Police Officer of Pen Cinema Police
Station Agege, Lagos, Mr. Segun Fabunmi, during the 2012 fuel subsidy
protests, 27-year-old Ademola Abe, was remembered by his family and
friends at Ogba.
The Lagos Police Command claimed that
Fabunmi had been arrested and was being detained at the SCID, but the
only concrete step to seek justice for the victim was taken by the state
government, who charged him to court.
Although he (Fabunmi) was dismissed from
the force by the Police Service Commission in April, 2013, almost 15
months after the killing, the police authorities in Lagos and Abuja have
remained silent.
Two months ago, a high-powered
delegation of police officers led by the Assistant Inspector General of
Police Zone 2, Mr. Mamman Tsafe, was unable to give a satisfactory
explanation to the family of Ugochukwu Ozuah, who was killed by
policemen last September near UPS bus stop along the Oworonsoki-Gbagada
Expressway.
The only surviving son of his family, Ozuah had only been married for five days before his death.
Despite the arrest of five policemen
attached to the Anthony division last November and their subsequent
transfer to the Force Headquarters, the police hierarchy has remained
ominously silent on the prosecution of the alleged killers in their
custody.
Last month, two officials of the
Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps were killed by some policemen
attached to police pipeline task force.
The killing of the officials officials,
Gabriel Adaji and Innocent Akegbe, occurred during a raid on suspected
pipeline vandals in Ikorodu.
Apart from assurances of investigation
by the Lagos Police Command and the NSCDC, no suspect has been arrested
for the deaths of Adaji and Akegbe.
Also in March, a 46 year old trader, Eze
Okoro, was killed by operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad,
Ikeja during a shootout with armed robbers at Ijaiye-Ojokoro. A husband
and father, Okoro was mistaken for a robber that night and gunned down
by the SARS operatives.
The Lagos State Police Command neither
claimed responsibility for the death nor was any arrest made in
connection with Okoro’s death.
A security expert, Dr. Ona Ekhomu, said
some of the cases were evidence of poor policing. He called for training
of policemen and their psychological evaluation.
He said, “Anytime one is stopped by a
law enforcement officer or an armed robber, there is a need for caution.
This is because a simple action such as unbuckling one’s seatbelt might
cause them to think you are reaching for a firearm. It is important you
make clear your actions before you carry them out.
“In Korie’s case, his window was wound
up even while the policemen were talking to him. So there was no proper
communication between him and the policemen. The incident was simply an
issue of poor policing on display if one is to take into account, his
friend’s version of events. The policemen could have simply shot at the
car tyres instead of the victim.
“Our policemen are in need of better
training and proper psychological evaluation if we are to put an end to
extra judicial killings because they go through a lot and we expect so
much from them.
The Lagos State Deputy Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Damasus Ozoani, told PUNCH Metro the police would not shield any erring officer.
He added that investigation was still ongoing concerning Korie’s killers.
PUNCH
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