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Police state / state Police (2)

#ENDSARS: IGP orders deployment of anti-riot Police officers to protect lives, property

On the following day (December 18, 2020), “The Guardian” newspaper’s front page report was another sad reminder of the problem with the police

Headline: “BARBER SEEKS N5 MILION DAMAGES FOR DETENTION,

TORTURE BY SARS”

“Twenty-two-year-old Salmanu Umar, who appeared before the judicial panel of inquiry on police brutality sitting in Jalingo, Taraba State, yesterday, narrated how he was tortured in detention by the disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of the police.

As damages, he is demanding N5 million from the police authorities. Claiming that he was tortured and detained for 41 days at the SARS office in Jalingo over alleged indebtedness. He added that N140,000 was forcefully collected from him by one Inspector Solomon Ochoni before he was released on bail.

More worrisome, according to him, was that his surety was also compelled to sign an undertaking to pay N700,000. The police squad had reportedly threatened to charge him for armed robbery or kidnapping if the N700,000 was not paid.

Narrating how his hands and legs were tethered while he was in custody, without food and water, Umar, a barber in the state capital, urged the panel and SARS to refund the N140,000 allegedly collected from him as bail, since “bail is free.”

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The complainant’s father, Yakubu Umar, also told the panel that he (Yakubu) also went through a lot of stress using his meagre resources to treat his son for the injuries he sustained in SARS custody.

The complainant’s counsel, Adams Sanusi, urged the panel to award N5 million to his client as compensation for detention without trial. He also demanded the immediate refund of the N140,000 allegedly extorted from the petitioner.

While admitting that the petitioner was actually detained for 41 days, the officer in charge of the disbanded SARS, Obomo Ubi, and Ochoni, whom The Guardian learnt was the Investigative Police Officer (IPO), denied that the petitioner was tortured.

The Sultan had been railing against the state of insecurity in the north, except that his recent statement gained much traction by the Saturday, November 28 murder of 67 farmers

Ubi also said the inability of the police to arraign the petitioner was due to the lockdown occasioned by the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

After listening to the presentations of counsel to both the petitioner and the respondent, the Christopher Awubra-led panel adjourned the case for consideration.”

On December 19, 2020, it was the front page report of “The Punch” newspaper that sent off shock waves which have gone viral.

Headline: “POLICE COLLEGE: 24 PEOPLE IN COURT FOR ALLEGED FORGERY,IMPERSONATION”

“The Nigerian police on Friday arraigned 24 people before Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja, for allegedly forging their certificates while seeking employment into the Police College.

While the Inspector-General of Police, Muhammed Adamu, is the complainant, S. Jonathan and 23 others are 1st to 24 defendants respectively.

According to the News Agency of Nigeria, they pleaded not guilty to the 106 counts bordering on forgery and impersonation.

Some of the charges filed by the prosecution counsel, Mathew Omosu, read in part, “You… sometimes between 2018 to 2020 at the Nigeria Police College Borno, being bound by law to state the truth, did swear on oath, and gave an information that is false and as such committed an offense punishable by law.

“That you…on the same date and place, did assume the name, designation of police officers, and thereby committed an offence punishable by Section 42 of the Police Act…”

After taking their plea, Omosu prayed the court remanded the defendants in a correctional centre pending the determination of the matter.

However, Justice Ekwo asked the prosecution how long the defendants had been in custody.

The prosecution responded that they had been in detention since July. Counsel to 1st to 8th defendants, Shittu Dan-Shita, made an oral application for their bail.

“in the interim, we have an application for the bail of 1st to 8th defendants,” he said.

The judge, who noted that the court would commence its vacation on December 22, asked the lawyer to file a formal application, assuring that he could hear the motion even if the court began its vacation.

Ekwo adjourned the trial until January 25, January 26 and January 27 next year for trial continuation and ordered that the defendants be remanded, pending the next hearing.

“They will be remanded but on the condition that they be given medical attention,” he said.

Speaking with journalists shortly after the proceeding, Dan-Shita said he would file the bail application on time in a bid to get the defendants released.

“My Lord is disposed to come out of his vacation to even hear the application for bail.

The prosecution filed 106 count charges against 24 defendants and as you can see, all of them pleaded not guilty,” he said.

The NAN noted that while Saidu Jubril represented 9th to 16th defendants, Adam Ugwanyi was the counsel to 17th to 24th defendants and the National Human Rights Commission was represented by Mariam Kadril.”

On its front page, the preview of the December 2020 edition of “The Will” newspaper which is yet to hit the newsstands carried in big bold headlines:

“NORTH AND THE POLITICS OF INSECURITY”

“The North, comprising four of the six-geopolitical zones of the Nigeria’s political structure with a sizeable number of 19 states, appears to have woken up to the dire insecurity in the region with the warning by the Sultan of Sokoto, Mohammed Sa’ad Abubakar III, that things have gone out of control.

Speaking at the fourth quarterly meeting of the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council on Thursday, November 26 in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, Sultan Abubakar III, said that the security system in the region has completely collapsed and lamented the high rate of insecurity, which has made the North the ‘worst place’ in the country to live in.

According to the Sultan, who is the spiritual head of millions of Nigeria’s Muslims; “The security situation in Northern Nigeria has assumed a worrisome situation. A few weeks ago, over 76 persons were killed in a community in Sokoto in a day. I was there with the governor to commiserate with the affected community.

Unfortunately, you don’t hear these stories in the media because it’s in the North. We have accepted the fact that the North does not have strong media to report the atrocities of these bandits.

People think the North is safe but that assumption is not true. In fact, it’s the worst place to be in this country because bandits go around in the villages, households, and markets with their AK 47 and nobody is challenging them. They stop at the market, buy things, pay and collect change, with their weapons openly displayed. These are facts, I know because I am at the centre of it.

I am not only a traditional ruler, I am also a religious leader. So, I am in a better place to tell the story. I can speak for the North in this regard because I am fully aware of the security challenges there.”

On the Zabarmari incident, the Sultan- led JNI on Wednesday, Dec 2, reportedly called “on the Federal Government to rise up to its responsibility and do well beyond the traditional condemnation, as lip service on security matter should stop…”

The Sultan had been railing against the state of insecurity in the north, except that his recent statement gained much traction by the Saturday, November 28 murder of 67 farmers, according to a Senate independent investigation, at Zabarmari village in Jere Local Government of Borno State.

By July 2020, the Jama’ atu Nasril Islam, led by Sultan Abubakar, had credited the destructive violence and insecurity ravaging the country, especially the north, to the inefficiency of the country’s security architecture. This was followed by the Arewa Consultative Forum’s condemnation of the arrest of some youths of Arewa Youths Organisation, for protesting against the spate of killings in the north with a call on President Buhari to sack the service chiefs. But the recent statement by the Sultan has really triggered a wave of support and critical comments from groups in the region. The Coalition of Northern Elders for Peace and Development, CONEPD, applauded the Sultan for his courage to speak up on the worsening security situation in the northern part of the country.

In a statement, the group’s National Coordinator, Zana Goni and National Women Leader, Hajia Mario Bichi, urged President Buhari to heed the clamour for a reorganisation of the security architecture and appointment of younger officers with new set of ideas to change the situation.

Besides commending the Sultan, the Northern Elders Forum led by Professor Ango Abdullahi, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to resign, because, according to them, “he has failed in carrying out the chief function of a central government, which is to secure and protect the territorial integrity, lives and property of the citizenry of Nigerians.”

It is not true that the North is totally free of these SARS excesses. I (A. Esele) was personally involved in the case of a young man called Gaddafi who was shot and killed in Kano in front of his family home by SARS operatives. He was not armed and he did not commit any crime.”