Overhauling Nigeria’s Security Outfits

In civilized climes, law en
forcement agents  and other security agents are public servants who not only maintain law and public order and  secure lives and property but also  give due respect to law-abiding members of the public. In such societies, cases of brutality, harassment of innocent citizens and overzealousness by security personnel are rarely heard of. Even in a situation they occur, the culprits are made to face the music, no matter how highly placed.
These acts differentiate civilized societies from those crude and barbaric societies where the fundamental human rights of law-abiding citizens are trampled on.
Nigeria is a society where brutality, killing  and other inhuman  treatments are meted out to innocent members of the public without any action against the culprits who are even most times defended by their fellow police or soldiers.
The crime rate, disorder and insecurity in the Nigerian society have reached a crescendo that one considers imperative to suggest the overhauling of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) and other security outfits as a matter of urgency.
Crime rate has tremendously increased in the country that the federal and state governments’ efforts to reduce or eradicate it could not yield fruitful results. The governments have set up joint security outfits to fight crime but they have turned out to be the worst  offenders who commit heinous crimes against the people they were meant to protect or secure.
The recent case of a female student of Iparapa Polytechnic, Eruwa, Oyo State allegedly raped by a soldier attached to the State Security outfit, Operation Burst is a clear evidence of criminal acts exhibited by the nation’s security personnel. The 21-year-old ND II student of  Mass Communication said the soldier raped her three times in a five-hour ordeal under a tree. According to the girl, she had seen off a friend on the night of August 29, 2014 and was returning to  her apartment at the Oke Ola area of Eruwa, when the  soldier arrested her around 10.30 pm on the allegation that she was a cult member.
Said her counsel, Adeosuna, while the  “disgusting act was going on, other soldiers walked by and did nothing”. the student was later taken to the Operation Burst Office where an identification parade  was carried  out and she identified the randy solider who admitted raping her and begged for forgiveness. The question now is, what is being done to the soldier? Will he be prosecuted  and punished to serve as a deterrent to others?
The Operation Burst squad, a security outfit set up by the Oyo State Government is made up of policemen and soldiers. Because of the support the security outfit gets from the government, it has been accused of violating the fundamental human rights of many innocent people in the state, including  journalists performing their legitimate duties. Apart from the criminal activities perpetrated  by men of the Operation Burst,  there have been several reports of brutality, molestation, harassment and other acts of violation of human rights by policemen, soldiers, Navy and other security personnel in Nigeria.
The problem of insecurity in this country needs urgent and more serious attention and restrategising. It is the  most increasingly worrisome issue in the country today. That is why the chairman of 20 Local Government Areas and 37 Local Government Council Development Areas (LCDA) in Lagos State on Thursday, September 10, 2014, advocated the inclusion of state and local governments in the country’s security framework.
The chairmen under the aegis of Conference 57, lamented what they described as  the growing  incapacity of the Nigeria Police to contain diverse security challenges, which they said, had constituted threats to Nigeria’s  indivisibility and unity. The chairmen through their chairman, Mr. Hakeem Suleiman stated this at a workshop on Security Strategies, Grassroots Awareness and Information Management for functionaries and stakeholders in Lagos.
The recently concluded National Conference deliberated on the creation of State  Police to complement the duties  of the Nigeria Police  Force  that adopted  the retention of one Federal Police Force tat is decentralised to involve participation by states, local governments and communities. Following the adoption, however, some delegates raised concern on the possibility of harmonious co-existence of both federal and state police, considering that their duties might overlap.
But a voice vote was later taken and delegates voted against seeking the consent of a state governor  before posting of a federal police commissioner to any state. They equally voted against state governors being involved in the running of police commands in their states.
Recently also, the Rivers State Police Command expressed its willingness to partner with the State Council of Traditional Rulers  for effective policing of various communities in the state. The immediate past Commissioner  of Police, Mr. Tunde Ogunsakin who disclosed this during a parley between the police and traditional rulers in Port Harcourt observed that the synergy between the police and traditional rulers would help in  dealing decisively with the security problems in the state. “The state and federal  police  must cooperate in maintaining peace and ensure that security of lives and property in the state, local government areas, and communities and expose criminal elements in the areas”, he stressed. In overhauling  the Nigeria  Police Force and other security agencies, the right people with unquestionable characters must be  recruited by proper and through  screening to avoid recruiting criminal elements.
The relevant authorities such as the Nigeria Police Commission and the Ministry of Police Affairs must take their  jobs seriously because looking at the attitudes of  our policemen towards their duties, it does appear that there is no proper check on them, while the authorities of the Nigerian Army and other security agencies should maintain their integrity by monitoring the activities  of their men. Anyone  caught in any act of criminality, brutality, molestation or something contrary  against innocent citizens should be made to face the wrath of the law.

Shedie Okpara