THE sanctity of life is a norm venerated among human communities worldwide and it is backed by positive instruments of law that criminalise the violation of the right to life. Despite this reality, security agencies in Nigeria prowl the land with morbid impunity and take life in extra-judicial circumstances as though it does not matter. The citizens have been so grilled under this condition incessantly such that it has become a vicious circle. This impunity was blatantly displayed recently by men of the Nigeria Police attached to the Bayelsa State Command. Policemen from the command gruesomely gunned down a 20-year old Emmanuel Victor in the presence of his mother at a roadblock along Sani Abacha Expressway in Yenagoa, capital of Bayelsa State.According to Victor's mother, Grace, who witnessed the killing, she and her son had closed from Sunday service on the fateful day, October 16, and were home-bound when her son who saw policemen extort money from motorcyclists, complained aloud about the incessant extortion and wondered why the policemen chose a Sunday for their reprehensible behaviour. His statement apparently irked the policemen who ran after the young man. The mother then appealed to the policemen that the boy was his son and that he should be left alone. Although one of them made to stop his colleague, it was too late as the trigger-happy policeman shot the boy point blank several times, and he died on the spot. Afterwards, the Bible that Victor was clutching when he was killed was removed from him and replaced with a pair of scissors. It took another patrol team to remove the boy's body from the spot of his execution. Typical of security personnel, a story was spawned to the effect that the boy was caught smoking Indian hemp.The incident has generated public outcry and has been described as 'a death too many'. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) noted that the incident has once more underscored the scope of extra-judicial killings in the country. Truly, the act is despicable and we condemn it. Across the country, the level of extra-judicial killings perpetrated by law enforcement agencies, especially the Nigeria Police, is rampart and alarming. It has become a source of great concern to law-abiding Nigerians. Human life is too precious to be wasted by anybody except by judicial review. Even at that, the trend across the world today is the abolition of capital punishment.It is important that the relevant agencies of government identify the culprits in Emmanuel's case and bring them to book as enduring deterrence to trigger-happy policemen. Good enough, eyewitnesses' accounts have identified the alleged culprit and the leader of the team. The killer cop bears the alias Boko Haram while the name of the inspector who led the team is simply given as Inspector John. These are enough lead to handle squarely the matter. The federal and state governments must ensure that justice is done in this matter. The Divisional Police Officer in the area of the incident and the State Police Commissioner should be held accountable for allowing such despicable acts to happen under their watch; while the killer cop must be apprehended, tried and punished according to the dictates of the law for this cold-blooded murder. The Bayelsa Police Command has demonstrated kid-gloves approach to the matter by its mere refrain that the 'matter is under investigation' while the public has acknowledged that the same team that killed Emmanuel is back to the same checkpoint continuing its extortion activities as though nothing has happened. Decent Nigerians are worried by this seeming nonchalant attitude of the authorities concerned. There should be immediate appropriate actions to redress this serious matter if our society is not to be ruled by sheer anarchy.Cases of extra-judicial killings and corruption in the police force require an overhaul of the formation. It would appear that there is nobody to report the police to when they are at the centre of violation of the rights of Nigerians. This should not be the case. The Police Service Commission and the National Assembly committees on the police must perform their functions to make the police accountable for their misdeeds. The judiciary must also be ready to apply the full weight of the law once infringement on the laws by security agencies are brought before them. This is one sure way to restore sanity to society, and confidence to traumatised and helpless Nigerians.
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