Anthony Okosun

Nigeria has become one lawless land of oppression, bondage, tyrany and brigandage. Make no mistake, about it, this is not just a recent occurence. Country Nigeria has long been a dysfunctional state where gun totting deviant military and police officers terrorize the daylight and midnight out of innocent, harmless and defenceless civillians. What is however, desperately worrisome about the major brutalization offensive currently being waged against Nigerian civillians by some members of the Nigerian military and the Nigerian Police force, is the fact, that Nigeria is officially a democratic geo-socio-political amalgam. Let the whole truth be told there are many good, disciplined, humble and law abiding commissioned and non commissioned  officers in the Nigerian Military and the Nigerian Police Force. In fact an overwhelming majority of Nigeria's uniform men are exceptionally worthy of their commissions, positions and postings. The problem is that a few bad eggs have soiled, tarnished and blemished the reputation of the good majority.

The military and police ought to protect the civillians and not harass, intimidate and brutalize the masses. This is especially so, in a country, where civillians are statutorily ineligible to carry firearms. The scandalous story of one Rear Admiral Arogundade, whose military escorts humiliated, brutalized, pulled, pushed, shoved, beat down and publicly stripped a lady naked in broad daylight in Victoria Island, Lagos Nigeria; is currently sending chilling shock waves down the spines of all good men and women, the world over. Video clips of the ugly,avaricious and disreputable incident is all over the internet; and the whole world is watching and everyone from China to India, from USA to Russia are horrified and disgusted. All civilized persons, the world over are embarrassed, appalled and feel devalued and debased by the gory incident.  http://www.ireport.com/docs/DOC-134234

This writer recalls the humiliation and embarrassment, he personally suffered in 1996, during the search for Lawrence Anini, Monday Osunbor, Alhaji ZZ and their other gang members. This writer and a friend were walking down the street, when an overzealous mobile police officer, stopped them at gun point and proceeded to cruelly humiliate them, without provocation. This writer and his friend were neither suspects nor persons of interest in the Anini case. Yet we were unfairly molested, as we were simply taking a stroll down the street. Many innocent Nigerian suffered similar humiliation at that time and even now.

The military and police ought to protect defenceless civillians and not harass, brutalize and intimidate innocent Nigerian citizens. It is time for the leadership of the Nigerian Military and the Nigerian Police Force to bridle and strap the few among them, who are reducing the good majority to odium, opprobrium, obloquy and ignominy.  A major personnel re-orientaion is necessary to make the Nigerian military and Nigeria Police Force more pro people and civilian friendly.

Another source of worry to Nigerians is the lack of security in Nigeria. Lives and properties are at the mercy of the armed robbers. Armed robbers rule the land in Nigeria. In all honesty, majority of Nigeria's police men have shown much courage and bravery in the fight against armed robbers; despite the fact that the armed robbers, ironically, are better equipped. It is a well known fact that Nigerian armed robbers rob leisurely without haste. It is also well known, that these lords of the night, go out on their missions with state of the art SUV’s and other super trucks. The police can only dream of the type of weapons paraded by these dare devil owners of the land.

Now, the question begging for an answer is: What is Nigeria's President Umar Yar Adua and the National Assembly doing about Nigeria's parlous security situation? Nigeria, though a quasi federation, runs a unitary police system, that keeps the police, under federal control. Thus the states and the local governments cannot help resolve the predicament. Could somebody please help inform the President, that Nigerians lives and properties are crying out and loudly for protection.

Another area, where the government in Nigeria must intervene is the area of Human Rights. The report by the United Nations Rapporteur on Torture that Nigeria routinely torture and ill treat suspects is disgraceful and scandalous. ( http://www.unhchr.ch/huricane/huricane.nsf/view01/DC4834AE01D70CADC125729C003F776A?opendocument ) According to Mr. Manfred Nowak, the U.N. Rapporteur, " Police shoot prisoners, beat them and hung them from the ceiling for long periods.......detainees in Nigerian police cells were frequently tortured to extract confessions......flogging with whips, beatings with batons and machetes shooting suspects in the foot, threatening suspects with death and shooting them with power cartridges........suspension from the ceiling or metal rods in various positions and being denied food, water and medical treatment...torture is an intrinsic part of how law enforcement services operate within the country (Nigeria)".The conditions described hereinabove are scurrilous, barbaric, brutal and a savage manifestation of man's inhumanity to man.

Nigerian citizens must not be dehumanized, debased, degraded nor made victims of cruelty and sadism. Confessions by suspects must be voluntary. Confessions no matter how voluntary are automatically unacceptable if a suspect's fundamental human rights are violated to extract such confessions. It is unconstitutional to compel any person in a criminal case to be a witness or give evidence against himself. At any stage of criminal proceedings and process the rights of suspects and accused persons must not be violated. Accused persons, Criminal Defenders and Criminal Suspects are constitutionally entitled to due process rights. Confessions must be free and by choice. There must be no confession obtained by torture nor coercion. There must be no psychological coercion. There must be no physical coercion. Nigeria's Constitution prohibits undue delay in criminal process and procedure; and any confession, no matter how voluntary if extracted by long delays in detention and or trial process must be regarded as null, void and of no effect whatsoever. Suspects must be taken before magistrates, Court Presidents or Judges without delay. Interrogation must not be done by relay teams. Suspect must not be held incommunicado. suspects must be read their rights before questioning. Police officers must stop questioning as soon as a suspect request or demand legal representation. Criminal Suspects must be informed of their rights to have a legal representation and of their right to remain silent. Prosecutors must be prohibited from using illegally obtained evidence during trial. Defense lawyers must apply to suppress or expunge illegally obtained evidence during trial. The state must provide indigent suspects and accused persons with free legal representation. This is an area, where Nigeria is far behind the civilized world. Poor criminal defenders in Nigeria are allowed to mess up their cases, due to their inability to retain defence attorneys; who are trained and better prepared and placed to handle and wade through the volumes of cumbersome and highly technical legal documents, court processes and proceedings.

To discourage the police from torturing suspects, our courts must take evidence from both the accused persons and the investigating police officers as to the following; background of the suspect, intelligence of the suspect, education of the suspect, prior experience with the system, physical condition of the suspect, mental condition of the suspect, coping skills of the suspect with the interrogation, location of the setting of questioning, lenght of the questioning, intensity of the questioning, frequency of the questioning, food and sleep deprivation and intimidation of suspect by police officers.

According to the British Broadcasting Corporation "Prisons in Nigeria are notorious with many of the countries 40,000 inmates crammed into massively overcrowded cells in old prisons.......the most shocking statistic is that some two third of all the prisoners in Nigeria have not been convicted of any crime......some people have waited for their trial for more than a decade. Their files had been lost, they were forgotten." ( http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/4880592.stm ) Here we are talking about Nigerian citizens entitled to fundamental human rights who have just been locked away for over a decade with no qualms nor questions whatsoever. These are fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters. Why and how did Nigeria degenerate to such an abysmal low level of barbarity, brutishness, inhumanity,  sadism, and viciousness. What type of government do we have that condones a system that allows Nigerians who have not been convicted for any offence to be kept incommunicado like caged beasts, away from the society so capriciously and whimsically. It is only in Nigeria that an accused is regarded as guilty until proved innocent; against the universal holding that an accused is innocent until proven guilty. If a Nigerian citizen is reasonably suspected of having committed a crime, he should be given speedy trial; for justice delayed is justice denied. It is absurd and a travesty of justice for the police to keep innocent and or probably guilty Nigerians in their detention gulags while fishing for evidence with which to prosecute and or persecute such detainees.

According to the British Broadcasting Corporation "Human Rights Groups say inmates often fall ill, some die from a lack of adequate medical treatment. Many cells have no beds or mattresses, the inmates sleep on concrete floors. Securing a blanket or a mat to sleep on is a luxury.......Food is basic and the ration, small. Usually a bowl of beans in the morning and cassava in the afternoon and evening. Some rely on their families to bring food to the prison....former inmates say money can buy better conditions, the guards taking their cut." Whether convicted or awaiting trial, persons under incarceration must be treated as human beings. It is the shame of a nation among the comity of civilize nations, when citizens who are alleged to have run amiss of the law are treated as bad as our prison system and the police treats Nigerians who are detained.

The BBC quoting the United States, State Department, states " Prison officials, police and security forces often deny inmates food and medical treatment as a form of punishment or to exert money from them." Only the heavens know the exact number of inmates who die yearly as result of ill and dehumanizing treatment or outright killing of inmates in Nigeria's detention centers.

Punishment must not be enforced on detained persons unless they are convicted persons and must be strictly in accordance with court judgements and sentences. Punishment should be reformative, meaning to correct, transform or to reshape the character and behavior of  convicted persons. This is in contradistinction to retributive punishment which is another word for an eye for an eye. Retributive punishment must be discouraged as it is sadistic vengeance and or retaliation that does nothing to make the convicted person a better citizen. In civilized societies, prisoners leave prisons as better and reformed persons. There are numerous reports of prisoners acquiring graduate and post graduate degrees while in the penitentiary. These are common reports in America, Europe and Asia. In Nigeria prisoners get worse. A petty thief gets locked up in a Nigerian jail and returns home as a more sophisticated and violent deviant, with the skills to commit armed robbery, rape, murder, arson or some other horrible felony.

How did the Nigerian penal system degenerate so badly? Billions of naira are voted annually for the upkeep of detainees and for the general running of the prison system and the police force. How much of that sum is actually, ultimately spent on finding solutions to the problems of those institutions.

As a first step to redressing the prison overcrowding and undue detention problems, all those who had already spent more time in prison than their prospective sentences should be let out along with the elderly, the terminally ill and those who are HIV positive. Police and prison guards must be trained to treat detained persons as human beings and not animals. Monies voted for the welfare of prisoners and awaiting trial detainees must be judiciously spent for that purpose. There must be a mechanism in place to ensure that corruption and mismanagement are reduced to the lowest ebb.

Prisoners must be trained and assisted with tools, equipments and finances to enable them re-enter normal society. The stigma, family and public rejection and shame of being an ex-convict makes it extremely difficult for them to get employment. If they are trained in prison to acquire skills and assisted with grants and soft loans and given managerial supervision in their first few years in post prison self-employment life, many of them will never return to prison nor a life of criminality.

It is time for the President of Nigeria and the Nigerian National Assembly to descend heavily on the bodies that are statutorily saddled with the organization, management and supervision of the Nigerian military, Prisons, Police Force, and related and or allied other governmental agencies to push them to set machineries in motion for the rapid re-orientation and revamping of these outfits to make them and their officers pro international standards, pro Nigerians and masses friendly.  

 Nigeria's past heros like Herbert Macauley, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, Anthony Enahoro, Mokwugo Okoye etc etc did not struggle so hard to decolonize Nigeria; only for the nation to be reduced into a terrain of tyranny, oppression, intimidation, fear, brigandage, brutalization and dysfunction.

ANTHONY OKOSUN (tonyosun@yahoo.co.uk)

 

Robot  # 1 | 06.11.2008 08:04

The recent story of one Rear Admiral Arogundade, whose military escorts humiliated, brutalized, pulled, pushed, shoved, beat down and publicly stripped a lady naked in broad daylight in Victoria Island, Lagos Nigeria, is currently sending chilling shock waves down the spines of all good men and women, the world over....Read the full article.

fmkp  # 2 | 06.11.2008 14:51

The time has come for our Rule of Law AGF, Mike Aondoakaa to come forward and truly exercise the powers of his office. This bare-faced animalistic violation of the dignity to the human person by this ill bred, ill-trained, ill-behaved animal-kingdom dwelling vandals must be addressed. As a first step, this "Rear" Admiral must be dishonourably discharged from the force for dereliction of duty and acts of omission unbecoimg of an officer and his escorts dismissed and prosecuted for brutalization and bestiality. Finally, with this kind of electronic evidence, this lady or the Human Rights community on her behalf, should sue the Fed Govt, the Navy and "Rear" Adimiral and his co-travellers in a civil court for punitive damages. Where is Keyamo and Falana? Olusegun Adeniyi, where are you?