The
attention of the Force leadership has been drawn to an editorial on the above
title as published in the Punch Newspaper of November 24, 2015.
Much as it is
acknowledged that the Editorial Board of the Punch Newspaper remains at legal
liberty to express its opinion, concerns on the integrity, motivation and
intent of the personalities behind such freely expressed opinion will naturally
be called to question when the pieces of information they relayed to the
citizens were products of misinformation, cheap blackmail and utterly biased
reportage.
In
the case of the Punch Newspaper, the consistency with which the Editorial Board
and some of the outfit’s correspondents muddle up the facts which they feed
undiscerning members of the public about the Force leadership coupled with the
manner they consistently personalise their arguments, is beginning to lend
credence to the concerns being increasingly raised by other informed segments
of the society on the strong suspicion
that an otherwise respected Punch Newspaper might have wittingly or unwittingly
submit its public opinion moulding platform to fifth columnists who are
currently manipulating the opportunity to run down the leadership of the Force.
The
strategy appears simple – Remain blind to
all the novel policy, legal, and practical steps the current Force leadership
of IGP Solomon Arase has initiated to address the challenges of misuse of
firearms and criminal justice delivery, and portray the Person of
Inspector-General of Police as an accomplice in such incidents with a view to
taint the professional personality and credibility of IGP Arase towards
achieving a predetermined but deeply misguided outcome. In the desperation
to give effect to this strategy, it is disheartening that the Editorial Opinion
under reference went far back into history and alluded to several alleged cases
of extra-judicial killings that preceded IGP Solomon Arase’s tenure as Chief of
the Nigeria Police and turned round to hold him responsible for such
violations!
For
instance, the Punch Editorial Board in Paragraph 6 made reference to an alleged
extra-judicial killing of one Ugochukwu Ozua, 36, in September 2012. In the same paragraph, allusion was also
made to a similar incident which in the admission of the authors of the
intriguing Editorial, occurred in October,
2011 and involved an alleged extra-judicial killing of one Emmanuel
Victor.
Furthermore, Paragraph 8 of the Editorial also made reference to an
Amnesty International report of September
2014 which allegedly dealt on torture at police stations. While all
these classical references occurred long before the appointment of IGP Solomon
Arase, the motive of alluding to these instances to taint the current
leadership of the Force raises suspicion, just as the feeble and wild allegations
touching on unproven cases raised in the Editorial and which the author
laboured to ascribe to the person of the current Force leadership also calls
for concerns on what the Editorial Board intends to achieve by misrepresenting
facts, and crafting arguments based on
muddled-up facts all in an attempt to turn public opinion against an otherwise
reform-oriented and thoroughly professional Force leadership.
Facts,
it is said, are sacred, and no matter
how much labour is invested in falsehood or how deeply and widely deceit is
orchestrated and disseminated, the truth, which remains eternally static,
cannot not be altered.
It is on this basis that the Force leadership wishes to
rely on the same set of logic that the Editorial Board adopted in concluding
its faulty argument to also set the record straight.
In
this regard, it is noted that the Punch Newspaper Editorial Board admitted that
extra-judicial police actions are not peculiar to Nigeria, but that it is a
major police management challenge that is present even in advanced policing
climes.
Having castigated the Nigeria Police Force leadership with clear intent
to suggest that it is the only Force in the world that grapples with this
challenge, and having laboured illogically (albeit in vain) to allude all cases
of extra –judicial killings in the Nigeria Police recent history to the
incumbent Force leadership, the Editorial board, instructively, turned round to
admit that similar incidents have been recorded in Germany and England which
are two countries that pride themselves as having advance policing systems and
human rights standards.
The calculated silence by the Punch Editorial Team on
experiences from the United States which nearly on daily basis grapples with
the challenge of similar extra-judicial actions involving an otherwise highly
trained, highly regulated and perhaps, the most advanced Police system in the
world is also intriguing.
Nonetheless,
the lesson to be deduced from the experiences in Germany and England (which the
Editorial Board referenced), and the United States (which they found convenient
to overlook for inexplicable but suspicious reasons) is clear.
Extra-judicial
actions of Police Officers in the line of duty is a global challenge. It is not
peculiar to Nigerian Policing Space neither is it peculiar to Specific Police
leadership. Rather, it is as noticeable in Nigeria (an underdeveloped country)
as it is in England, Germany, United States and other developed countries.
One
then wonders why the Editorial Team of Punch Newspaper having admitted that
such extra-judicial incidents do occur in other policing climes, failed to
ascribe these challenges to the persons of the Heads of the Police Agencies in
England and Germany (which they referenced) as they attempted to do in the case
of Nigeria.
Perhaps
out of limited intellectual knowledge or sheer mischievousness, the actors
behind the Editorial Opinion in question, also failed to acknowledge that the
informed debates on extra-judicial actions of police officers in the line of
duty have always beenon what could be done to regulate the exercise
of police powers as a strategy towards preventing abuses of fatal outcomes and what effective
machineries could be emplaced to hold any erring officer individually accountable
for his or her professional misconduct. This is what civilised
societies engage and this is what professional journalists, intellectuals,
human rights bodies, police managers and policy makers always collaborate to
advance in security spaces where national interest override primordial
considerations of misinformation, bigotry,
and pull-down syndrome which the actors in the Punch Editorial Team
appear to be manifesting.
It
is therefore, of little wonder that while the Punch Editorial Board opted to
commend the Police leadership of England and Germany for according to them,
initiating actions to bring the individual officer that perpetrated such
extra-judicial acts to justice, they, unfortunately, chose to remain intellectually blind to
similar actions that IGP Solomon Arase has initiated within the Nigerian
Policing space both to prevent abuse of police powers and to bring erring
officer to deserved justice in the most transparent and prompt manner since his
assumption of duty as Inspector-General of Police.
Indeed, in a twist of logic,
they chose to vilify, rather than commend IGP Arase for his courageous and
transparent approach to addressing the challenge of extra-judicial killings and
other abuses involving officers of the Nigeria Police Force.
These
initiatives which have been widely reported and which IGP Arase has enunciated
at various public fora include the evolution of a Force Policy which clearly
directs all Commissioners of Police across all State Commands to arrest
any officer involved in extra-judicial killing or any form of gross abuse of
power, process such officer through the internal disciplinary process and
charge him or her to court within 48 hours of the occurrence of such an
incident.Similarly, the senior officers in whose
immediate jurisdiction and under whose direct watch such infractions occurred
have in furtherance to this Force Policy, been queried
and dealt with in line with extant Force Disciplinary Procedures.
The
Force leadership makes bold to state that the Policy framework has been
complied with to the letters across all State Commands and the Force challenges the
Editorial Board of Punch Newspaper that orchestrated the utterly misleading
Editorial Opinion to point to any incident of extra-judicial killing in which
the concerned officers have not been charged to court for murder since 22nd
April 2015 when IGP Arase was appointed.
This is of course, unless they
are claiming by their own twisted logic, that it is leadership per excellence
for British and German Police leadership to discipline and charge erring
officers to court for abuse of powers, but it is leadership failure for the
Nigeria Police to do same in respect of its officers involved in similar
abuses. This can best define the depth of the prejudicial orientation of the
authors of the editorial opinion.
Even
beyond this, it is to be stated that IGP Solomon Arase is a lawyer and a police
leader that has participated in several local and international fora where
issues touching on safeguards of abuse of police powers were subjects of
discourse.
He has since his appointment, drew on lessons from these engagements
to re-define the approaches of Force leadership in relation to abuse of Powers.
It might indeed interest the Punch Editorial Board to know that IGP Arase has
hosted the Amnesty International in his Office in the course of which valuable
partnership to strengthen Force Policy and machineries for preventing
extra-judicial police actions were discussed and opportunities for sustained
collaboration evolved.
Similarly,
it might also interest the brains behind this misinformation to note that under
the current Force leadership, a Complaint Response Unit (CRU) to provide a 24/7
online and telephony interface with members of the public and to provide a
real-time opportunity for citizens to monitor and report police conduct and
receive feedbacks on actions initiated in respect of such complaints has been
established at the Force Headquarters.
This is a novel initiative that defines
the character of the Force leadership (that is being constantly vilified by
Punch in a manner that suggest that come actors in the outfit are carrying out
a hatchet job) as one that is committed to giving meaning to the concept of
police-citizen accountability as well as strengthening oversight machineries
that could prevent abuse of powers by police officers.
Contrary
to the assertion that the Force leadership has not been proactive in addressing
issues raised in the tainted Editorial, feedback from members of the public
indicate a huge commendation for this police accountability and performance
monitoring initiative which was emplaced with the support of the British
Government (Justice For All Programme – J4A).
Based on reports processed
through this platform, appropriate punitive or corrective actions have been initiated
against several officers against whom complaints of gross professional
misconducts were made.
In
addition, just few weeks ago, the Force leadership initiated actions towards
rebranding, retraining and re-kitting operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery
Squad (SARS). This action was in response to public concerns on the mode of
operation and excesses ascribed to the Squad by the citizens. Foreign experts
have been brought in to expose the operatives to specialised training while
their mode of dressing has been standardised with a view to giving them a
professional outlook and orientation.
The first sets of trainees have passed
out and others are being processed through the orientation scheme. If Punch
Editorial Members were to clear their mentality of prejudice, they would admit
seeing the branded SARS Team with a new set of branded kits whenever they are
on operation across Lagos and other parts of the country.
Furthermore, IGP Arase, as part of his well-publicised
6-Point Strategic Police Plan identified
the ‘exploration
of possibility of engagement of less lethal technologies/weapon system such as
electro-muscular disruption technology (Taser or Stun Guns) by police on
routine patrol functions to reduce incidents of fatalities associated with
misapplication of lethal weapons by the police’. The import is that
even at the point of assumption of duty as the Inspector-General of Police, IGP
Arase had a clear vision and positive intention to address the issue of
extra-judicial killings on a sustainable basis by adopting global best
practices and policing technology.
Again, the actors within the Punch Editorial
Board that are engaging the platform for falsehood and misinformation may wish
to note that the Force leadership is currently in the process of acquiring these
Taser/Stun Guns and once delivered, the Force will systematically migrate from
the current practice where AK47 is the first line of response to any level of
threat, to adoption of the Taser/Stun Guns technology.
This is a revolutionary
and unprecedented initiative in the history of policing in Nigeria which will
in the long-run effectively reduce fatalities associated with police actions.
Beyond
this, part of the strategic policing plan of the Force leadership is Human
Rights-Driven and Intelligence-Led policing approaches which were crafted to
prevent abuse of pre-trial detention powers and other ills associated with
evidence collection. Under this policing approach, detectives are being trained
in the art of application of intelligence to criminal investigation in a manner
that will encourage collection of evidence before arrest is effected.
This
system when fully integrated into policing function at all levels in the Force,
will not only ensure respect for human rights, it will also reduce the time line
between detention and arraignment in court, while also eliminating space for
inhuman or degrading treatment of citizens within investigative or operational
processes.
It
is also on record that the Force leadership has re-introduced musketry (weapon
handling) into all components of training and development programme of the
Force, while one of the first sets of official functions IGP Arase performed on
assumption of duty was the launch of a reviewed Policy Framework on Use of
Firearms.
An instrument that was reviewed and launched in collaboration with
UNODC and other development partners with intent to address the challenge of
misuse of lethal weapons by field officers.
It is strange that the Punch
Editorial Board as informed, professional, and intellectually-inclined as one
would have expected them to be never referenced any of these initiatives
neither did they attempt to research by contacting the Force leadership to
verify and obtain facts that could have aided them in balancing their editorial
as expected of seasoned journalists of the repute of an Editorial Board Members
of a leading National Newspaper like The
Punch.
It
is to be added the Force leadership has never and will never give official
leverage to any personnel that engages in any act leading to the deprivation of
lives of citizens. IGP Arase has consistently and publicly swore that ‘no
Nigerian citizen will suffer injustice through his actions or inactions’.
Such a statement can only come from a Police manager that is determined and
confident of his professional ability to provide quality leadership for the
Police to protect and serve the citizens.
In
the process involving deployment of over 300,000 personnel across 12 Zonal
Commands, 36 States/FCT, 127 Area Commands, 1, 329 Division, 1,579 Police
Stations and 3, 756 Police Posts in a Police Force reputed to be the largest in
Africa and one with the broadest Area of Responsibility, professional errors
involving some officers cannot be ruled out. It behoves the Force leadership to
increasingly emplace policies and strategies to safeguard against such errors
and bring the erring officers to justice, where and when they occur.
Furthermore,
contrary to the assertions of the authors of the misleading editorial, the
Force leadership has in all the instances of extra-judicial incidents recently
recorded, shown concerns for the victims and their families.
Indeed, it is on
record that IGP Arase has, in clear demonstration of his empathetic leadership
orientation, personally met and engaged some of the victims, undertook the
payment of their medical bills, extended consideration for scholarship to their
dependants and also initiated some empowerment programme to support them.
This
is the known best global practice. This is what the Force leadership is on record
to have been doing and will keep doing.
The
Force leadership is not disinclined to public criticisms. Indeed to IGP Arase,
that is a unique tonic that oils public accountability and in most instances
through such informed criticisms, the Force leadership draws knowledge and
inspiration which are often engaged as vital public feedbacks for policy and
strategy re-evaluation.
However as critical societal watchdogs, where the Punch
Newspaper consistently misinforms (especially through its editorials which is
expected to be a product of facts, credibility and authenticity) in a manner
that suggests that the platform is playing out a well-crafted script, such
intention will be strongly condemned.
The current Force leadership is
enlightened and accessible enough to be engaged and journalists guided by
professional integrity, practice ethics and national interest have been
engaging IGP Arase and contributing to his Vision for a reformed Police Force.
The Punch has remained an isolated voice in this process.
It has, therefore, become expedient to set the
records straight and draw the attention of the Punch Authorities to this
sustained pattern with the expectation that the actors that have made
themselves available to orchestrate this misinformation using their vantage
position within the Punch’s credible platform could be advised to restore
professionalism to his or her practice in the interest of the age-long, hard
earned credibility of the Newspaper.
This will entail the courage to criticize
based on knowledge and verified facts, practice with integrity, and information
without bias. As for every lie told, corporate integrity is eroded and it
serves neither the Editorial Board nor the Punch Newspaper any good to
continually distinguish itself as a platform to blackmail and run down a
well-meaning, focused and innovative leader of a strategic institution as the
Police Force for inexplicable reason.
National security interest and not
personal interests should define the conduct of the Editorial Board Members of
The Punch Newspaper and there is absolutely no positive reward either to the
corporate interest of the Punch or the Editorial Board of the Outfit, in
continually turning the citizens against their police. The Punch will do well,
henceforth, to be part of the Change Mantra by opting to support the Force
leadership in addressing the challenge of national security rather than
continue to be isolated in the journalism world as they labour to keep blind
eyes on positive approaches to policing as being emplaced by the Force
leadership in what is being defined within the Nigerian public space as an
ill-motivated attempt to run down the Nigerian policing system and its
leadership.
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