“The police cannot protect the citizen at this stage of our
development, and they cannot even protect themselves in many cases. It is up to
the private citizen to protect himself and his family, and this is not only acceptable
but mandatory”[1]
“I don’t think there is any reason on earth why people
should have access to automatic and semiautomatic weapons unless they are in
the military or in the police”[2]
The
gruesome murder of over fifty (50) members of the Nigerian police force who
were on a mission to arrest the chief priest of the ombatse shrine in Nassarawa
State, Nigeria shas made the news for the past few days. We do not intend to
get into details of the killings but there are so many unanswered questions
which we would appreciate the answers; how is it possible that untrained
natives were able to kill well trained and armed police men in their numbers
with cutlasses? Ordinarily speaking, it is impossible. So we are left with no
option to conclude that something beyond the ordinary happened and if that is
the case, one can also suspect that whoever sent the police officers to that
place had an idea that it was a difficult and almost an impossible task or how
else can we explain sending over 100 officers made up of not just the police
but members of the department of state services, members of the civil defence
corps to capture just one man?
Why
were these officers not warned of what they were going in for, since when did
it become part of the duties of the police, civil defence and state security to
capture native doctors? Why wasn’t the army involved in this operation since it
was a joint operation? Why didn’t the police send back up when the people sent
had not returned, they waited for 24 whole hours.
My
main grieviance which provoked the writing of this article is that most people
do not seem to care. If it was police that shot someone or aluu killings or the
oga at the top interview, it will be all over the place, pictures will be all
over the internet, NGO’s will talk, there
will be demonstrations and protests, artists will hit the studio fast,
nollywood will shoot a movie. Agreed the Nigerian police doesn’t have a good
record especially because it is synonymous with bribery and corruption and
extra judicial killings. Most Nigerians don’t really care about the police,
afterall its one of them that betrayed them, whether they die in their numbers
or not, nobody cares, but the truth is they are human beings too with families and
rights too, they didn’t deserve to die just like that. Also we must remember
that it wasn’t only the police that reportedly died in that mission, members of
the department of state services that
went on that mission have still not be found and are also presumed dead
and only people closely related to them are making a fuss about it. It
shouldn’t be so. An attack on the police or members of the force of any country
is an attack on the whole nation.
Furthermore,
we read reports that the members of the House of assembly are calling on the
police not to seek revenge, as much as that is good, it is not enough, what are
they compensating their families with? It shouldn’t just be the police alone
that should compensate the families of the fallen heroes, the members of the
House of assembly has way too much money, they can contribute just small from
their plenty and compensate these families. It is only in Nigeria we hear
families of slain police men on duty complaining many years later that they
haven’t received the officer’s entitlements. If this is the case, what is the
motivation for them to fight crime? Do we honestly think that if those officers
knew they would meet their death that they would have embarked on that mission?
Now
about this ombatse cult, It is still unbelievable that they have been in
existence for over three years and the government of Nassarawa state kept quiet
about it. Yet we have been trying to fight boko haram sect to no avail. Yet
another sect is growing right at our back yard and it took the slaying with impunity
of our officers for them to be made public. I still haven’t heard in the news
that the chief priest of that shrine has been arrested. Hmmm, a stitch in time saves nine. I call on
the government, the Nigerian Police, the department of state services, the
Nigerian civil Defence Corps, the Nigerian Army and all the powers that be to
act fast, do the needful and put an end to this madness because it has already
gone too far.
I
end this article with this bible verse in Mark 3:27
“No
man can enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he will
first bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house.”
A
word is enough for the wise.
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