Nigerians Endorsed Police Brutality in Dec 2015

Police Brutality

22 year old Mus'ab Sammani, a Computer Science Nigerian graduate from India, who was shot dead by police in Kano Nigeria on 4th December is just another entry on the almost endless lists of innocent Nigerian civilians who have had precious life snuffed out of them at the hands of the same people paid to protect them. 

The history of police brutality in Nigeria predates the civilian  era (before 1999). Nigerians thought the transition to civilian rule would end impunity but, we were wrong; it has worsened. 

Late Mus'ab Sammani

Police brutality seemed to have been given government approval when SARS (Special Anti-Robbery Squad) was instituted in 2006. 

SARS is a branch of the Nigeria Police Force under the Force Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (FCIID). The department is suppose to deal with crimes such as armed robbery, car theft, kidnapping, cattle rustling and other crimes associated with firearms.

It is poignant that we might never know the exact number of innocent civilians that have been tortured and killed by the Nigerian police. Calls by civil society organizations pushed the federal government to do some ‘re-structuring’ and the name of the department was changed to FSARS (Federal SARS), the ‘re-structuring’ didn’t induce the slightest reduction in impunity. 

Facts On Police Brutality in Nigeria

• According to the World Internal Security and Police Index International (WISPI), Nigeria has the worst police force in the world in 2017.
• In a report in 2016 Amnesty International accused SARS officers of regularly detaining young adults unlawfully and extorting money from their families.
• The United Nations issued a statement on 2nd September 2019 censuring the rising rate of impunity being meted out on the Nigerian masses by Nigerian military and Para-military outfits. 

Despite cries by the Nigerian masses over brutality by armed forces, the masses systematically endorsed the act in 2015. 

From 12^th to 14th December 2015, Nigeria soldiers committed a massacre of at least 348 Shiites in Zaria Kaduna state. The crime was that they blocked a convoy conveying the Chief of Army Staff, General Tukur Buratai. This was followed by several unprovoked attacks by the police and other armed out fits on Shiites. On some occasions, even Sunni civilians took part in the carnage. 

According to rough estimates, over 400 Shiites have been killed by the Nigerian police and soldiers since December 2015. 

It was totally wrong for the Shiites to block a public road but, what does the constitution say should be done to any person or people who illegally block a high way? The death penalty is definitely not a likely comeuppance. 

Nigerian Sunnis praised the actions of the police and soldiers out of historical and blind spite for Shiites. Nigerian Christians/non Muslims were generally indifferent but some, like Sunnis, also celebrated the massacres out of spite for Islam and Muslims. 

How then is it possible for a people to criticize actions they have praised in the past? 

Like the popular saying goes, what goes around comes around. 

I personally postulated, "You are a slave to every evil you ever defended".

As with other concerns raised by rights groups on Nigeria; the pleas on police brutality have been pushed aside, the impunity has continued and is not likely to abate any time soon.