Who killed Officer Nanbol Audu? OVER the years, the Nigeria Police Force has become a laughing stock and a mockery of what a security organization should be. This derision with which the force is perceived is not without justification. The force has become a veritable example of an institution that is defined by its many failures, malfeasance and misfeasance. It has been said to be the hub of corruption which ranges from the petty check point extortion of twenty Naira, tardiness at work in the office especially with regard to bail procedures and a host of other glaring and brazen acts of molestation of innocent people, which negate the very essence of the force. Ideally, the Police Force should be an honourable institution charged with the responsibility of safeguarding lives and property of the citizens. But this has not been the case. On many occasions, the force has failed to rise above board in the discharge of its duties to the citizens of this country. Cases of collusion with criminal elements abound. A few years ago, one Kabiru Sokoto, a suspected bomber was let loose by the police under questionable circumstances and the nation was enraged. It was later confirmed that the same Kabiru Sokoto had been dismissed and reinstated into the force in a way that falls short of standard procedures. At the high echelon of the force, corruption seems to be the order of the day. Recruitment, promotions and discipline fall in the realm of the absurd. As a matter of fact, one cannot adequately chronicle the many operational lapses that define the institution of the Nigeria Police Force. As if these are not enough, the highest echelon itself recently demonstrated to the world, and without shame the disdain it has for some of the country’s institutions of democracy when it invaded the National Assembly and prevented no less a revered person as the Speaker of the House of Representatives from discharging his constitutional duties. In addition, many law makers were treated to generous doses of tear gas even within the hallowed chambers of the National Assembly. This invasion drew widespread condemnation from concerned Nigerians, most of whom saw it as an attack on democracy. Prof. Wole Soyinka was quite unsparing in his condemnation of this act which he referred to as an attempted coup against a democratic institution. He called it a ‘brutish’ act, adding that “if shame belongs anywhere, it belongs to the Inspector General of Police and his slavish adherence to the conspiratorial, illegal and unconstitutional instructions, 1-to undermine a democratic structure, and one to make worse, convoked in response to an emergency of dire public concern.” The import of this statement is clear; that the Nigeria Police, through its act of invasion actually undermined democracy and the will of the people. Nothing can be true. But this is not the only area in which the Force has demonstrated its will to undermine the citizens of this country. Internally, the force is embroiled in some of the most atrocious acts against some of its own officers. Take for example, the recently purported “suicide” of one ASP Nambol Audu, an armourer of the Kaduna State Police Command. The circumstances surrounding the death are so hazy, confusing and unreliable as to qualify for utter falsehood, just cooked up to cover up an internal conspiracy in which Nanbol was simply a scape-goat. According to the account of the Kaduna State Police Command, Nambol Audu had been in detention for questioning over an alleged arms deal at the armoury of the command. There is no problem with that, since the man had already been arrested and the crime foiled. But the curious development that has set tongues wagging about an inside plan to demonise some sections of society is the fact that the Kaduna State Commissioner of Police claimed that Nanbol, who was in detention, with no apparels on him except his boxer and no weapon around suddenly committed suicide by shooting himself. Now, this raises several questions. First of all, is it possible that a person (suspect) in detention can have access to a gun with which to shoot himself? Sources have revealed that while in detention, Nanbol Audu was handcuffed. How did he use the hands to shoot the gun? Besides, the fact that the Police Command was acting strange by refusing to inform Nanbol’s relatives about his purported death by suicide, and the fact that Nanbol himself had been thoroughly maimed and brutalized is ample evidence that someone, somewhere was desperate to hide something. Also, it is on record that some of the relatives were openly threatened and intimidated. A relative narrated how one officer threatened to shoot her if she did not leave their office, when she went to see Nanbol. Clearly, this is a case of extra-judicial killing and the Kaduna State Police Command is the prime suspect. Under normal circumstances, a person in police custody or detention for any crime ought to be charged to court. For two weeks the Kaduna State Police Command did not do that, only to report that the suspect shot himself with a gun. Obviously there is no truth in this claim by the police. Therefore, the next theory is that the police in Kaduna killed one of their own. There is therefore a clamour for justice from relatives of the late Nanbol, whose questionable death the police have not been able to explain, except to issue threats. The preponderance of opinion is that the police in Kaduna have a hand in the killing of Nanbol. Therefore, the Police Force as an institution owes not only Nanbol’s family, but the entire Nigerian citizenry an explanation on the circumstances of his death. No one, not even the dumbest of person will believe that Nanbol killed himself. He did not. Someone killed him, and the Inspector General of Police owes Nigerians an explanation. You see, the police have become very notorious for shoddiness, tardiness and impunity against the very people whose taxes fund the institution. Also, the Force has evidently pitched itself against the people it is paid to protect. This is not good enough. One can therefore understand the vituperation of Prof. Wole Soyinka against the police as a whole, and the clamour for the IGP to institute a full inquiry into the circumstances of Nanbol’s death. The Force must get to the root of this act of plain abuse of Fundamental Human Rights, especially when such abuses are orchestrated by an institution that is supposed to be the vanguard for the protection of such rights. Graffiti recalls that it was one of such extra-Judicial killings in 2009, the killing of Muhammad Yusuf, leader of Boko Haram, that escalated hostilities which have snowballed into a national calamity. If the killing of ASP Nambol Audu was an internal job meant to cover up certain things or to placate certain interests, it was poorly executed, leaving too many loose ends that point back to the Force as the sole suspect in the murder of Nanbol. The IGP must ensure that the institution he leads comes clean on this else the Force will continue its downward slide into the slime of disrepute and lack of integrity. Find Nanbol’s killers now Mr. I.G.P. A MILITARISED POLITY Surely it could not have been Graffiti alone that noticed this weird phenomenon during the party primaries which just ended. There seems to have been a massive mobilization of the nation’s security apparatus in the conduct of the primaries. News flashes and video footage across the country showed that there was large scale mobilization of the police, the Armys Civil Defence and other agencies concerned with security. There was also a massive display of hardware in some places including Armoured Personnel Carriers (APC). One would have thought that with nearly two decades of democracy the populace would by now be used to doing things without having to be prodded by a menacing gun-wielding soldier. As a matter of fact, in a democratic dispensation such as ours we ought to have learned to do things in a completely civilian manner. But obviously, that is not the case going by the observations at the party primaries. How long we can go on like this remains uncertain but the fact remains that instead of less militarization of political processes and functions, there seems to be more militarization of the polity. Methinks that as our democracy moves away from the age of nascence to that of maturity, we should be more inclined towards civil and democratic rather than military ethos. IT’s NICE TO BE BACK For weeks now, Graffiti has been absent from the pages of THE NIGERIA STANDARD, due to illness. Surely, readers must have missed the column as much as they too have been missed. Gladly though Graffiti is now back; strong and rejuvenated. I can tell you for sure that during the period of illness, the mind was willing to get to the readers but the body was weak. Now, both mind and body are willing to go on.
Posted on: Wed, 10 Dec 2014 10:40:26 +0000
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