Police Brutality Research on Nigeria Case
Within Phe police brutality research paper we will analyse the given topic and discuss it via different perspectives like: the definition, causes, real cases and main issues. So what is police brutality?
Police Brutality is the use of excessive andor unnecessary force by police when dealing with civilians. Amnesty International defines Police Brutality as the various human rights violations by the Police. This might include beatings, racial abuse, unlawful killings, torture, or indiscriminate use of riot control agents at protests. Thompson defined Police Brutality as any instance in which the police officer using unnecessary excessive force to or while interacting with members of the public while performing his or her duties. These brutality takes two forms which is physical and non - physical, physical includes actions such as killing and torture while non physical involves verbal abuse.
Historical Overview of Police Brutality in Nigeria
The Nigeria Police Force as we know it today is an invention of the colonial masters, not to secure lives and properties but as a means of forcefully controlling the people. Toyin Falola in his book, Colonialism and Violence in Nigeria regarding Police Brutality said ‘it is connected with the larger issues of power, resistance, terrorism, and nationalism’. The colonial masters having monopoly of violence at the time used it at will to clamp down on dissenters and resistance to its violence.The excessive use of force the people of Nigeria suffer today at the hands of the police in my opinion is part of the remnants of colonialism and the masters. During the reign of the British, whenever the people refused to abide by the decisions or rules laid down by the colonial masters, the police was brought in to beat the people into submission. In 1929, Nigerian women in the provinces of Calabar and Owerri in Southeastern Nigeria in what later became known as the 'Aba Women Riot’ in colonial history which is a misnomer as it was not a riot but a protest led by women to resist the unfair taxation system imposed on them by the British through the warrant chiefs, the police were called and they opened fire on the protesting women, killing over 50 women and injuring more. Years after in Iva Valley, Enugu State at the Enugu colliery, on the 18th November 1949, the police opened fire on protesting miners at the British owned coal mine. These are a few examples of the brutal history of the Nigerian police, today it is no different as protesters are still being shot at, even protesting students are not exempt from this.
Police Brutality in Nigeria Nowadays
Police Brutality is a real problem in Nigeria today and recent times has shown how dangerous it is. A world policing report done in 2016 places Nigeria last on a list of 127 countries this did not come as a surprise to anyone familiar with the Nigeria Police Force and its antics. From 1999, Nigeria has enjoyed uninterrupted democratic government and this has done nothing in shaping the way the police act with impunity and no recourse to the rule of law. On the 25th September 2008, 15 years old Emmanuel Egbo was murdered by a police officer in Enugu while he was playing with other children, he was a child and unarmed still he was killed by the police and in August 2009, his body disappeared from the mortuary. Till date, his family have not gotten justice for this unlawful killing by the police. Emmanuel Egbo is just one of thousands killed by the police from 1999 till date.
When police officers raided nightclubs in Abuja in 2019, the women in an interview conducted by CNN said that they were sexually assaulted by the police. The women finally got 'justice' two years later in 2021, a Federal high Court awarded between 2-4 million Naira in damages to the victims and also issued an injunction restraining the police, Nigeria Security and civil Defence corps, and other listed respondents from arresting women in such circumstances. Ifeoma Abugu a 28 year old graduate of Institute of Management and Technology was arrested alive and well from her fiancé’s apartment at Wumba Village, Lokogoma, Abuja on September 10, 2020 by officers of the Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) only to be found dead at the Specialist Hospital, Gwagwalada the next day. Autopsy conducted on her showed that she was strangulated and also her privates were 'heavily mutilated’. The police could not give her family any explanation for how she ended up dead and how her body came to be mutilated, till now her family have not gotten justice and those responsible are still free. After sitting for UTME exams, 21 years old Gloria Okolie was arrested by the police, her parents were not informed, after searching for her for weeks, she was found in police custody after a man who was released from the same station alerted her family that he saw her at the police station washing and cooking for the police officers, even after extorting her family, the police refused to release Gloria to her parents till the story was brought to social media and it got to the Inspector General of Police.
These are just a few of the instances where the police violated human rights majority of which victims and their families never get justice. There are many causes of police brutality ranging from lack of accountability to institutional problems, the causes have not be adequately addressed in discussions about police brutality as the symptoms are being addressed an not the root causes.
Causes of Police Brutality
Lack of Accountability and Prosecution
It is important that police officers who violate human right in any shape or form are prosecuted to the full extent of the law. In Nigeria, police officers accused of brutality are protected by the system and either transferred out of the unit or given early retirement with all benefit accrued to the post in which they retired. As seen in the case of James Nwafor the Officer in Charge of Akwuzu SARS in Anambra state between 2012 and 2016. James Nwafor was accused of the torture, extortion in exchange for freedom, conversion of suspect’s properties into his personal use, and brutal murder of hundreds of young men in Anambra state including allegedly being responsible for the corpses found floating in Ezu river in 2013. For years a twitter user Obianuju demanded to know the whereabouts of her brother Chijioke who was arrested by James Nwafor in 2012 never to be seen again even after her parents paid to secure his release, Chijioke has not been seen till date. After numerous petitions against James Nwafor by civil society organisations and the people of Anambra state, instead of James Nwafor to be prosecuted, he was transferred out of Akwuzu and retired in 2018 with no justice for his victims. The lack of accountability further embolden police officers because they know they’ll eventually be transferred else where to carry on their unlawful ways. It is important for police officers who are guilty of wrongdoing to be held accountable for their actions as lack of accountability can send the wrong message to police officers that brutality is acceptable and part of their jobs.
Inadequate Training for Non Violent Situations
A major cause of Police Brutality is inadequate training. This manifests mostly in the manner of arrest, when police officers try to arrest a person, they only know how to use maximum force, they are not trained on how to use minimum force to carryout arrest. For example, when a person refuses to make a stop when flagged down by the police, the police are trained to shoot to kill and ask questions later, whereas they can stop the car by merely aiming at the tyres if there’s any need to shoot at all, also the average police officers do not carry any other weapon other than the gun. In civilised societies, the police officers make use of other weapons e.g tasers. Adequately training police officers will reduce police brutality drastically.
Psychological Issues
Some police officers suffer from psychological issues either before joining the force or after joining the force. This is not taken into account during the screening and recruitment process and if a person that is mentally unstable is given a gun, the consequence is drastic. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is bound to happen when a person cexperiences something traumatic, police officers in the course of their duty are bound to encounter traumatic events which can greatly affect their mental health. A 2019 study observed that Police officers who self - reported engaging in abusive Police practices tended to have high levels of PTSD symptoms and also the use of excessive force can possibly result in sense of guilt and moral injury which can lead to PTSD.
Organizational and Leadership Issues
Leadership of the police force sometimes contribute to the impunity shown by police officers. Their bosses are known to protect them when they violate human rights because sometimes it is done at the order of their superiors. Officers are encouraged to use whatever means necessary to effect arrest, given this carte blanche, the officers act anyhow they please.
Negative Impact of Police Brutality
Police Brutality has negative impact on public trust and confidence. The people lack trust and confidence in the police force and this leads to attacks on the police and refusal of the people to give valuable intelligence and information to the police for fear of being arrested. For example, a woman posted on the internet that she found a car open and abandoned with the properties of the occupants still in it. The comment was full of people telling her to walk away and not report to the police because she will be arrested. The Nigerian police is known to engage in that sort of behaviour. Police Brutality endangers the lives of citizens. People are unwilling to help when they see others in critical conditions. For example, when a person is shot or wounded and in need of medical attention, nobody is willing to help because if the person dies, the Nigerian Police is known to arrest anybody that brought the injured person to the hospital. Also hospitals refuse to treat victims of gun shot without police report even after a legislation has been passed authorising hospitals to treat first and ask questions later, they still do not out of fear of the police, this results in a lot of avoidable deaths. Police brutality has a negative effect on victims’s mental health and that of their families. They develop a fear for the police and abhorrence for the police force this in turn has a negative impact on police officers as the victim or their loved ones might see a need to avenge the wrong done to them by attacking any police officer they come across. Police brutality breeds non state actors for example, vigilantes. These non state actors can not be trusted because they lack legitimacy an can act however they please. Vigilantes can be effective but from experience as time goes on they become the monster they were created to tackle. For example, the bakassi boys of southern Nigeria.the group was created to tackle armed robbery which they did effectively but they started going after innocent people for financial gain and abusing human rights and they had to be disbanded.
Conclusion
Acts of brutality by the police is not limited to acts of violence, it includes false arrest or wrongful arrest, sexual harassment and abuse by a police officer against a person in custody, etc. Police brutality is an issue that plagues even the most developed countries, it is not restricted to just third world countries although it may differ in severity as Nigeria’s is more severe. For example, in May 2020, another black man, George Perry Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin in America. This triggered a series of protests in America against racism and police brutality and in October of the same year, Nigeria had hers; the End Sars Protest.
