A History of Police Brutality in Nigeria. A Case Study of SARs 1992-2020
CHAPTER ONE
Objectives of the study
The main objective of the study is to examine the history of police brutality in Nigeria. A case study of SARS 1992-2020. The following are the specific objectives of the study:
- To examine the historical overview of the Nigerian Police Force and the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).
- To examine the prevalence of police brutality and human rights abuse in Nigeria.
- To examine the causal-factors aiding the violence and unlawful killings of civilians by the SARS officers in Nigeria.
- To examine the implications of unlawful and brutal killings of civilians by officers the special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) to Peace and National Security.
- To carry out an overview of END SARS Protest and its impact on Human Rights Abuse in Nigeria.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Overview of the Nigerian Police Force
The first police force was established in 1861 by the British colonial administration in the territories known today as Nigeria (Adebayo, 2020). This 100-man contingent was essentially a consular protection force based in Lagos, which later became known as the “Hausa Force,” so-named after the ethnicity of the men recruited into the unit. As the British expanded their reach to the east and north, they formed additional police forces comprised largely of recruits from outside the communities in which they were to be deployed (Adebayo, 2020). These early forces were notorious for their abuses and general lawlessness. In 1891, the consul general of the Oil Rivers Protectorate in what is presently eastern Nigeria expressed shock at the “numerous acts of lawlessness and pillage” by the police, who were commonly referred to in the community as the “forty thieves” in police uniform. Similarly, the governor of Lagos colony acknowledged in 1897 that the Hausa Force “no doubt behaved very badly in the hinterland by looting, stealing and generally taking advantage of their positions (Adebayo, 2020).
The primary purpose of the colonial police was to protect British economic and political interests. The police accomplished this objective through the often-brutal subjugation of indigenous communities that resisted colonial occupation (Ademoroti, 2020). The use of violence, repression, and excessive use of force by the police has characterized law enforcement in Nigeria ever since.
The British merged Lagos colony and the southern and northern protectorates in 1913 and named the new colony Nigeria. The northern and southern regional police forces were later merged, in 1930, to form the colony’s first national police—the Nigeria Police Force (NPF). The British also established local police forces under the control of traditional leaders. During the colonial period, both the NPF and the local police forces were implicated in numerous acts of abuse and corruption (Suleman, 2003). In 1952, for example, a member of the Nigerian parliament decried the “old sergeants” in the NPF who, he claimed, were “steeped in corruption.” Members of parliament also criticized the NPF traffic division during this period for having “exposed itself to bribery and corruption and thus lowered the prestige of the force” (Tamuno, 2006, p. 123).
The Nigerian Police Force (NPF) is a federal institution. The Nigeria Police personnel perform personal protection and guard duties. The NPF was established under Section 214 of the 1999 Constitution. The Police Act (1990) describes the function, structure and operation of the NPF. The Act was originally drafted in 1943, and was last reviewed in 1967 (Police Act Cap, 2004). The President and Commander-In-Chief of Armed Forces in Nigeria holds operational control of the Force and appoints the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), who is responsible for the command of the police subject to his directive for public safety and maintenance of public order. In the same vein, the administrative, financial and logistics management of the Nigeria Police falls under the authority of the Federal Ministry of Police Affairs (Segun, 2016). The National headquarters of the Nigeria Police is located in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja; it has about 12 Zonal Commands and 36 State Commands and they all have Criminal Investigation Departments (CIDs) that are responsible for investigating criminal matters. There are several Special Forces, such as the paramilitary Mobile Police (MOPOL), the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) and the Swift Operation Squad (SOS). There exists an X-Squad which is the unit responsible for investigating all the various police corruption cases in the country. The Nigeria Police is also guided by what is called the Police Act. This Act serves as guidelines for all police officers in discharging their duties in the country (Ademoroti, 2020). The Act also bestows on all officers the authority to execute some of their responsibilities; bearing of firearms, detaining suspects, protection of human lives and lots of others (Police Act Cap, 2004).
CHAPTER THREE
POLICE BRUTALITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATION
Concept of Human Rights Violation
There is now near-universal consensus that all individuals are entitled to certain basic rights under any circumstances. These include certain civil liberties and political rights, the most fundamental of which is the right to life and physical safety. Human rights are the articulation of the need for justice, tolerance, mutual respect, and human dignity in all of our activity (Kennedy, 2010). According to Breslin, et al. (2011), human rights abuse is the acts that contravene human rights. The human right abuse simply means any act or action taking by an individual or group of individuals that causes hindrance or affects the rights of another individual or people, such right to life, socio-economic and political wellbeing can be regarded as human right abuse.
The abuse of human rights is used interchangeably with the word (violation) of human fights which means to deny individuals their fundamental moral entitlements. It is, in a sense, to treat them as if they are less than human and undeserving of respect and dignity. Examples are acts typically deemed as crimes against humanity, including genocide, torture, slavery, rape, enforced sterilization or medical experimentation, and deliberate starvation, which is used especially by states agents or social control actors in order to bring about law and order in the society (Hubert et al., 2011).
While human rights have long been defended and promoted as a value in their own right, the evolution of global politics has increasingly shown that human rights abuses can also become ‘international security’ issues and threaten the stability of the international system. For instance, terrorism can be fueled by human rights violations. Migration flows are exasperated by refugees fleeing abusive governments.
CHAPTER FOUR
PATTERNS, CAUSAL-FACTORS AND IMPLICATIONS OF THE UNLAWFUL KILLINGS BY OFFICERS OF THE SPECIAL ANTI-ROBBERY SQUAD OF THE NIGERIA POLICE
Instances and Patterns of Unlawful Killings by Officers of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the Nigeria Police
It is a known fact that Police operations are vital towards maintenance of peace, security, law and order in the country but the public are put aback when their rights get infringed upon as operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) carry out unlawful/brutal killings under different guises in discharging their duties. Several instances of SARS officers’ killings at checkpoints, killings during operations and raids, killings in police detention and many others have been reported. The growing pattern of unlawful killings by officers of the SARS manifests itself in various dimensions, and the methods in which they are involved in the dastardly act often times than not, seeks to serve as a cover up for the crimes committed (Source: Field Survey, 2019).
The Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) officers get themselves involved in counter active crime prevention activities, review and redefine strategic approaches towards crime control, planning and organizing raids to combat civil disturbances, criminal activities such as armed robberies, looting, rioting among others. But the SARS officers under the charade of police operations, SARS officers have been identified to uncontrollably and unlawfully kill innocent citizens or individuals who they usually allege made attempts to escape (Source: Field Survey, 2019). In the same vein, the “Police Force Order 237” statutorily permits the police officers to shoot at suspects attempting to evade arrests. But in nowadays, there have are claims that the police abuse this provision of the law by killing suspects who have not attempted to flee or evade arrest and planting evidence to back their crime (Police Act Cap, 2004).
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Conclusion
This study examined the history of police brutality in Nigeria: a case study of SARS 1992-2020. As we draw a conclusion in this study, it is expected the officers of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) of Nigerian Police to be fully, educated, enlightened and re-oriented on how handle civil defense matters. The Nigerian government is expected to play its own role in the administration of justice so as not to tarnish the Nigerian image within and without the international community. And more significantly, the lives of Nigerian citizens are dependent on the Police and they have a statutory responsibility to protect. The SARS officers’ unruly acts have been out rightly condemned by the general public and the study comes out to be optimistic that if all the various recommendations are strictly adhered to, there would be peaceful co-existence and stable national security while the police offices come out more reformed, professional and effective in the discharge of their duties in the country.
The systematic brutality of the police affects virtually every Nigerian, though at different levels, as the impact weighs down more on the poor. The operations of the Nigeria Police Force bear almost no resemblance of the requirements of the Nigerian law. The activities of the NPF are at marked variance with protecting human life, safety, and security, as it rather endangers the people they ought to protect. It is evident that lack of capacity to conduct proper criminal investigation is responsible for the reliance of the Police on torture-induced confessions. As a result of the multitude of police stations in the country and the manner of development of the authority and responsibility of these police stations and divisions, there has been little supervision and control of this problem.
Urgent measures are therefore required to return policing in Nigeria to the path of lawfulness, respectability, and public confidence. At present, there is no accountability for crimes committed by the police. The NPF is controlled at the federal level and its officers are not answerable to the local populations. The best approach to solve this dilemma of unlawful arrest and detention is through intelligent legislation in respect of the laws governing detention for investigative purposes. Other suggestions include, proper training and retraining of police office, deployment of advanced forensic techniques for investigations, improvement in the capacity of the police in their investigative responsibilities, encouragement of professionalism within its rank and file as well as effective punishment of erring officers as deterrence to others.
Recommendations
The study made several useful recommendations and suggestions to regulate and checkmate the excesses of the SARS officers as follows:
In the first instance, during the Nigerian police recruitment process, there are tools that could be used to screen all applicants for the police job, and these tools would function as simulator technologies that would be made widely available for police training. These tools allow the trainees to be tested on whether they shoot too much, too little, or mostly right, in relation to risks or emergencies. The significant point concerning this method is that, training itself may do little to change or improve the personal conduct of any security officer. The method could be useful to screen out applicants whose reactions constitute “bad policing” culture.
Secondly, culpability on the part of the Nigerian government could be seen from the government’s attitude to many unresolved cases of unlawful and extra judicial killings, violence, poor police condition of service, and general lawlessness by police in the country. There is a need for the government to demonstrate genuine readiness and commitment to ending impunity of police brutality out rightly.
Implication for further research
Finally, on implication for further research, the assessments will broadly sample the desired outcomes for findings on police brutality and unlawful killings of innocent civilians not only in Nigeria but in the global system. The research would definitely guide the Nigerian government as well other states in the global community on reforming and repositioning the security agencies to be more professional in the discharge of their duties.
REFERENCES
- Adebayo, B. (2020) “How a social media movement against police brutality prompted Nigerian government to act”. CNN. CNN. CNN. Retrieved 20 October 2020.
- Ademoroti, N. (2020). “What It Means When the Police Say They are Dissolving SARS”. BellaNaija. Retrieved 11 October 2020.
- Adewole, K. (2020). “SARS reform is the best alternative to #EndSARS”. Nigeria: The Cable.
- Amnesty International (2009). Killing at Will: Extra-Judicial Executions and Other Unlawful Killings by the Police in Nigeria
- Amnesty International (2014) Welcome to Hell Fire: Torture and Other IllTreatment in Nigeria. London: Amnesty International Limited.
- Amnesty International (2015). An Account of human Right violations In Nigeria (Pre-British, British and post-independence) European Scientific Journal, ESJ, 10 (10), 124-133. Amnesty International. (2017). Interview. Onitsha. Retrieved on 10 October 2017.
