BEYOND the worsening challenge of having a lot of fire arms,
even machine guns on our streets we have a more horrible problem in the manner
of people that bear the munitions. Angry people; hungry people; crazy people;
greedy people; serial killers; maniacs; psychopaths; thugs; robbers; murderers;
and even children now brandish guns freely on our streets and nobody querries
them even when our laws have not allowed everyone to own or bear arms.
Aside the brazen legal abberation in such development, the
real worry therein is in appraising what those who have been trained or
certified to bear arms have done with it in recent times. Members of Nigerian
Police are duly trained to bear guns and other munitions but what some officers
and men of that system have done with the munitions has rattled the nation. The
increasing spate of indiscriminate killing of innocent Nigerians, in cold
blood, by Police cops has not only shocked the nation, it has so deeply
embarrassed the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Adamu Mohammed, that unlike
most of his predecessors, he responded early to the sordid story by mulling a
downgrade on the form of ammunition some cops would soon be bearing.
Cases of Police shooting of unarmed civilians have been a plethora
across country in the last two quarters. Between late last year when the
killing of a female National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) member in the Federal
Capital Territory, Abuja by cops caused a stir and some days ago when a young
lady accompanied by her boyfriend was killed in Lagos, there has been several
other incidents of such brazen bloodletting. A young man in his 20s was gunned
down for nothing while he was watching football in a match ‘viewing centre’ in the Alimosho area
of Lagos. Similar developments have been reported in Rivers and Edo states.
The cases are just many. They now crop up in the news in
such a number and frequency that no sane person can describe the shooting as
cases of ‘accidental discharge’ as they used to be dubbed in Nigeria, up until
the 1990s. These ones now appear like predetermined actions or results of
skewed orientation. It is such that about a month ago, a police man shot dead a
Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) officer in the presence of
his wife and children in Abuja.
Reports of the matter no longer sell newspapers because
things have degenerated to the level that for just N100 (one hundred naira) the
cops on the street can kill.
Not only the cops, even the arm-bearing personnel of
Nigerian Customs Services (Customs) now fire at unarmed citizens. A story broke
recently of a Customs operator that shot dead a young Edo man who returned from
abroad some days before. Reason: failure to tip the Customs man. An armature
video of the scary event went viral recently and drew public condemnation,
forcing Customs authority to react in denouement.
Reports of the matter no longer sell newspapers because
things have degenerated to the level that for just N100 (one hundred naira) the
cops on the street can kill.
Not only the cops, even the arm-bearing personnel of
Nigerian Customs Services (Customs) now fire at unarmed citizens. A story broke
recently of a Customs operator that shot dead a young Edo man who returned from
abroad some days before. Reason: failure to tip the Customs man. An armature
video of the scary event went viral recently and drew public condemnation,
forcing Customs authority to react in denouement.
Are we really taking note that there are now guns and hard
drugs everywhere, and the young men who parade the streets with the arms (including
the law enforcement agents and soldiers) as well as the ones who bear theirs
illegally are the ones who dope themselves daily even while on one form of duty
or the other with fire arms. Why won’t a drugged fellow kill at the slightest
prod?
The fact that there are lots of stress and disenchantment in
the land, from joblessness to lack of social safety nets, to hunger, tumble of
value system, lethargic anger and more worsens the case. The fact too that most
Nigerians now cannot tell in whose hands they are safer between the cop and the
bandit should give the authorities of Nigeria, especially, the law enforcement
and security agencies a very serious cause for concern. We must therefore act,
and be seen to be doing something actively to end the scourge.
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