Police/Civil Defence: One clash too many

Many are at loss as to why security agencies in Nigeria will be at daggers drawn as seen in the recent Police and Nigerian Security & Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC fatal clash.

The seeming rivalry between the Police and the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, NSCDC recently came to the fore when some Policemen attacked the men of the NSCDC personnel who were on duty at a pipeline area in Lagos.

Two officers of the NSCDC were reportedly killed while five sustained gunshot injuries in the clash with the police in Ikorodu, an outskirt in Lagos.

Police mobilising at Alausa, Lagos

Trouble began around 3am when the dead, Gabriel Adaji and Innocent Akegbe, were said to be on duty with their colleagues. It was gathered that the NSCDC officials had arrested some pipeline vandals with their exhibit when the police intervened.

Sources said as the Civil Defence officials were taking the suspects to their Alausa, Ikeja office, one of them made a call. “It was not long after the call that they encountered the policemen that opened fire on them.”

NSCDC deputy spokesman, Sola Odumosu was said to have accused the Police of killing his colleagues. He said: “In what could be described as a commando attack, policemen ambushed and opened fire on men of the anti-vandalism squad of the Lagos State Command of NSCDC, killing two of them on the spot while others escaped with gunshot wounds in Ikorodu area.

“The incident occurred at about 3am. The officers and men of the corps were returning from a successful anti-vandalism operation where vandals were arrested with their exhibit. However, as the suspects were being transported back to the state headquarters of the Corps, an eyewitness said the vandals made calls to their police collaborators for support since they could not overwhelm the Corps officials.

“Immediately the police got wind of the information, they laid ambush for the Corps operatives and opened fire on their patrol vehicles, killing two operatives instantly. Others made desperate efforts to escape but they were also hit by police bullets. The vandals were released immediately by the police.”

Lagos Police spokesperson, Ngozi Braide said, “At about 0145hrs, there was a distress call from DM Security PPMC, Mosimi that they were experiencing drop in pressure on the pipeline. The Unit Commander in charge of Konu immediately pulled out his men on Konu axis under Inspector Sunday Gabriel to proceed to the scene.

“As they were approaching, they heard sound of serious gun firing, the Inspector instructed his men to proceed to the direction where it was coming from as it could be vandals. Upon arrival, they saw a group of Civil Defence Corp members coming out from the area where the shooting was earlier heard.

Scene of the Police/Civil Defence clash at Berger junction, Abuja

“The NSCDC men challenged the policemen who were about four in number on what their mission was in the area; saying that it was their sole responsibility (Civil Defence) to guard and protect pipelines. At this juncture, there was an argument between the NSCDC and the police and the most senior NSCDC officer, DSC Olufemi ordered his men who were about 14 to disarm, arrest and handcuff the police team leader and other members of the team. The NSCDC disarmed Inspector Sunday Gabriel, handcuffed him, collected his service pistol, walkie-talkie, and Police I.D card. As they were about dragging him into one of their standby Hilux vehicles, a phone call was put to the Police Unit Commander reporting the situation. The three other officers resisted the arrest and this infuriated the Civil Defence officials who started shooting sporadically to intimidate and subdue the police officers.”

Braide noted that before the police commander’s arrival at the scene, the NSCDC officials had taken to their heels, abandoning the handcuffed police Inspector with one of their colleagues.

She said it was shocking that at about 4am, the Civil Defence Corp Commander called the Police Commander, Mosimi to say that he lost two of his men and their bodies had been deposited at the hospital.

“Up till now, the pistol of Inspector Sunday Gabriel who was badly beaten and stabbed by the NSCDC officials including his other accoutrements are still with NSCDC.

Meanwhile, hours after the incident, men of the Police and Civil Defence were said to have clashed again in Alausa, Ikeja. The NSCDC officials were alleged to have abducted and assaulted three policemen – Sgt Charles Igiebor, Corporal Ekun Julius and Cpl Okoro Charles – who went for National I.D Card registration exercise.

Other policemen rushed to the scene to rescue their colleagues, leading to sporadic gun shots. It took the intervention of the Rapid Response Squad, RRS officers to bring the situation under control. Policemen were also attacked in other parts of the state.

It would be recalled that there was a Police and Civil Defence clash at Abuja’s Berger roundabout some months before the recent clash in Lagos when ten Police officers engaged in a public fight with three Civil Defence Corps officers.

We gathered that the police officers purportedly engaged in a fight with the civil defence officers for over interference in their reserved duty. According to eyewitnesses “the police officers were trying to stop a vehicle and the Civil Defence people came to interfere, then the police officers who were more in number attacked them and started beating them up.”

It was further disclosed that there were sporadic gunshots as both parties lashed out whips at one other. “There were gunshots and then I saw a police officer flogging a Civil Defence officer with a whip while he was trying to run away,” a witness said.

“As they shot into the air many people scampered in different direction for their safety. The clash left at least one man dripping with blood apparently from bruises suffered during the confrontation.”

It took the intervention of the Divisional Police Officer from Utako Police Station to resolve the fracas. FCT Police spokesperson, Doris England, claimed that she is not aware of the situation and would make inquire about it.

Mobile Police

All accounts point to a seeming battle for supremacy as there are always policemen, civil defence and Vehicle Inspection personnel, otherwise known as VIO at the roundabout. Sometimes too, Federal Road Safety personnel also check vehicles as well as control traffic there.

In a press release made available to our correspondent the Commandant General of the NSCDC, Ade Abolurin urged his men to continue to work with their sister security agencies in order to curb vandalism and oil theft.

Abolurin cautioned his men, especially the Lagos Command, to be calm, law-abiding and not carry out any reprisal attack or transfer aggression, but to maintain the status quo of friendship with other agencies.

He said federal government, through an Enabling Act, mandated the Corps to carry out the function of mounting surveillance, protecting critical infrastructure of government, arrest and prosecute anyone caught in the act of vandalism as well as those suspected to be collaborators.

Abolurin charged his men to ensure that anytime they want to embark on any operation, they should liaise with the military formation within their locality as they have agreed to collaborate with the Corps in stamping out vandalism, illegal bunkering and oil theft.

Meanwhile, the President, Goodluck Jonathan summoned the Police and the Civil Defence chiefs over the recent developments. Though Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Dahiru Abubakar, was said to be currently out of the country, the Police delegation was led to the meeting with the president by the DIG ‘A’, Dept. Suleiman Fakai.

Other members of the delegation were Lagos Commissioner of Police, Umar Manko; Assistant Commissioner in charge of Anti-Vandalism, Friday Ibadin; and the Deputy Force PRO, Frank Mba. Mba confirmed that the clash formed part of the issues discussed at the meeting with the President.

Our correspondent can authoritatively disclosed that the clash between the Police and NSCDC officers dated back to when the latter attacked a Mobile Policeman at the Abuja National Stadium when Portsmouth and Manchester United Football Clubs came to Nigeria for their pre-season tour in 2009.

The NSCDC beat the Policeman to a point of coma and almost beat our correspondent before the angry fans at the stadium gate chased the Civil Defence officers with stones.

Some analysts argued that there is a peculiar form of depressing arrogance common among Nigeria’s security personnel, and it is probably a carry-over of colonisation and the years of autocracy after independence.

Before the NSCDC was established, clashes amongst security agencies have always been between the Police and the Soldiers. The last time Police had issues with the Soldiers was in Lagos when the governor, Babatunde Fashola included the Police in the Task-Force with the Lagos State Traffic Management Agency, LASTMA.

Some policemen attached to the LASTMA were said to have stopped a soldier driving a Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) who drove on a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) lane, which is restricted solely for the BRT buses, the designated transport carrier. 

According to an eyewitness account, the soldier rebuffed all appeals to leave the BRT lane culminating in the police officers beating him until he slumped on the road. A colonel who was driving by was said to have stopped and after enquiries into the matter, rebuked the soldier for flagrant disregard of traffic rules.

But when the LASTMA officials attempted to tow the soldier’s SUV to their office, the soldier was said to have called for reinforcement from nearby barracks. Pandemonium ensued in the area as members of the task force, the police officers, motorists and passers-by fled the scene on sighting the approaching soldiers.

The Brigade Commander, 9th Brigade of the Nigeria Army, Ikeja, Brig. Gen. Sanusi Muazu, described the incident as “quite unfortunate.” He lamented that the soldier took the BRT lane despite being a restricted lane exclusively for BRT buses; he said the task force was within their right to have stopped him.

Other clashes between the Army-Police include: August 8, 2004, a bloody battle raged for several hours in Benin City, Edo state between soldiers and policemen that left several persons critically injured after soldiers from the 322 Artillery Regiment of the Nigerian Army clashed with policemen from the Oba market police station.

October 4, 2005 witnessed another clash between the police and Army at Ojuelegba. No fewer than five persons lost their lives.

On April 20, 2011, Abdulllahi Garuba, a Police Corporal with Force no 244,238 serving at Mopol 2 Lagos had an argument with two Private of the Nigerian Army, Simon Lucky and Oladipo Temitope. The argument led to a brawl and the two privates beat up the police, stabbed him severally and left him half dead. He was rushed to a hospital where he later died. Both soldiers are yet to be prosecuted.

February 2011 witnessed yet another clash in Ilesha, Osun State, when a soldier was found dead in a gutter after embarking on a drinking spree. The soldiers attacked a nearby police station and manhandled several innocent civilians.

In April 2006, there was yet another clash between policemen and men of the Nigerian Air Force at the PWD section of the Oshodi-Agege rail line in Lagos. The policemen had reportedly gone to conduct a raid on a shack suspected to be a base for criminals smoking marijuana. Whereas the men of the Air Force, in their account, alleged that the policemen assaulted them in the process. The Police claimed that the Air Force men were shielding the suspected criminals from lawful arrest. Be that as it may, what ensued was anarchy on parade, leading to several causalities.

In 2009, six policemen on routine patrol on the coastal waterways near the Takwa Bay, Lagos jetty of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), reportedly chased a speedboat they suspected to be occupied by some pirates.

On their way, a civilian boat occupied by about five naval men allegedly blocked the policemen. According to the policemen’s account, they told the Naval men that they were chasing some suspected pirates who had just driven past them. To use their words, “instead of assisting us in the chase, one of the Naval guys lifted his rifle and, before we knew it, shot a constable in our boat.” Although, according to an eyewitness, the other Naval men thereafter dropped their rifles, none of them assisted in rushing Constable Festus Akinruntan, the victim, to the military hospital, Ikoyi, where he was rushed to for treatment.

And in August 2009, at least six persons were reported dead with 15 others injured as the Joint Military Task Force (JTF) clashed with the police force. The clash broke out between men of JTF guarding contractors dredging River Niger and Special Anti-Robbery Squad from Anambra State Police Command. They exchanged fire at the River Niger in Onitsha, Anambra State.

Not forgetting in a hurry, the death of a soldier in mufti on the Badagry Expressway, and the reprisal killing of senior police officers by soldiers two days later in 2006. Police sources, attributed the death of the soldier to accidental discharge.

Investigations revealed that security agencies’ clash is not restricted to Nigeria alone. It was gathered that in 1999, four persons including two jawans, were injured when Army-men clashed with the Railway police at the Bangalore Railway station, in India.

According to Railway police, about 300 jawans from Kashmir were stranded at Bangalore Railway station when their Army headquarters vehicles failed to pick them up on time. In their frustration, a few Army jawans resorted to vandalism and damaged baggage. Two Railway policemen who arrived at the spot to control the situation were also beaten up by the enraged jawans.

Similarly, on December 4, 2009 the Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police clashed in the capital city of Uruzgan province. The incident left several people dead and wounded, but the exact figures was not ascertained.

Apart from the show of shame most of the clashes have brought to the country, reprisal attacks always end up with killing and maiming of innocent citizens. Government on its own has lost intelligent officers and money used in training them has been wasted. Apart from the number of people who die during the attack, vehicles, Police stations and buildings have been razed down in the past while most times, criminals are released to escape.

The worrisome aspect of the scenario is that each time there is a clash, government set up committees to look into them and end up not doing anything. In 2006, the then President Olusegun Obasanjo set up the Justice Emmnanuel Adegbite Independent Probe Panel. The panel concluded its work within the stipulated time, yet, the recommendations of the reports has not been implemented including other related reports.

However, observers believe that nor of the security agencies have done anything to change their men’s orientation. Indeed, they apparently prefer to sustain and even surreptitiously nurture the unhealthy orientations of reprisal attacks.

They claimed that we would continue to have extrajudicial killings and rampaging soldiers disgracing the image of black people until we have leaders with the political will to put an end to the killings and total disregard for human life by men in uniform.

A member of the Police Service Commission, PSC, Dr. Otivie Igbuzor said, “I think the way to avert further occurrence is for all agencies to operate in accordance with the rule of law. All citizens, whether in uniform or not should be obedient. If people are conscious of the fact that if they break the law, they will be punished accordingly, we would not have this kind of clash. So these are the two major conditions. All the security agencies should be obedient to the laws of the land, they should also be treated equally before the law.”

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, SAN, Chief Emeka Ngige believes that, “the best way to avert further occurrence is that the government should intensify efforts in creating ideas that would foster good relationships among the armed forces. There is need for an enabling environment which would allow for social interaction among the army and the police and other agencies.”

In addition he said “Regularly there should be joint military patrol involving the Army, Navy, Airforce and Police. If that is done, the spirit of comradice would be encouraged and sustained. They should always have events together, like having officers mess together, because the problem is that they are having things in common. At the officers, level, there is need for regular meeting with officers from sister agencies.”

He further suggested that, “The police be redeployed to work with the Army, just as the army could be redeployed. So, meetings at the officers’ level have to be constant, because what is causing this thing is lack of communication. There should be communication among all agencies that will foster their relationship.”

They predicted that beyond the disgrace the security men have brought the country in the eyes of the whole world, if we continue to treat the killings with kid gloves, it will not be long before we witness a replay.