NIGERIA-CRIME: Hard To Distinguish Law Enforcers From Lawbreakers

By Toye Olori Reprint | | Print |

Toye Olori

LAGOS, Oct 22 1996 (IPS) - When the Lagos State government set up a special police unit to respond quickly to rising crime, residents heaved a sigh of relief.

But now just a year after the special unit began its work, residents claim that “Operation Sweep” has turned into a nightmare not for the criminals, but for law-abiding citizens.

The special squad was inaugurated last October to fight rising crime, especially in Lagos State. Official statistics show that between 1990 and 1994, 123 police and 276 civilians were killed by armed robbers nationwide.

During the same period, 3,613 suspected armed robbers were arrested and 532 killed. Some 7,538 armed robberies were reported during the same period and more than 50 percent of the incidences occurred in Lagos State.

To wage a war against the sophisticated criminals, the special unit of 4000 policemen and soldiers operates clandestinely. Armed with automatic weapons, they move in unmarked cars and do not wear official uniforms to avoid detection by armed robbers.

But their civilian garb has led to the growing problem of residents mistaking the special unit for armed criminals. Scared motorists, for example, have landed in ditches at the sight of armed men in civilian clothes mounting roadblocks.

“I was in a taxi one afternoon when the driver sighted four armed men in mufti (civilian clothing). He shouted ‘armed robbers’ and veered into a ditch, then jumped out of the car and ran for his dear life,” said Kunle Adewumi, an executive of a business centre here.

“I could have run too, but the door was jammed. I resigned myself to fate and thought I was going to be killed by armed robbers,” added Adewumi. The men approached the car and indentified themselves as policemen.

” …One could just collapse at the sight of riffle-carrying men in casual wear flagging you down, because armed robbers have similarly dispossessed people of their cars in the past,” said Adewumi.

According to some human rights activists here, the special squad is also known for rudeness and often, members of the squad do not identify themselves to the public.

“We think it is a very wrong way to apprehend robbers. Members of the squad are often so arrogant they don’t even show their identity when confronted,” said Tunde Olugboji of the Constitutional Rights Project (CRP), a human rights group here.

“This is an attempt to harass and intimidate citizens, because nobody can distinguish them from armed robbers. The Nigerian law does not permit people to go about in mufti (civilian clothing) armed,” he told IPS.

According to Olugboji, given the sophisticated methods of armed robbers in the country it is easy for the public to leap to the conclusion that the “law enforcers are the lawbreakers”.

Olugboji argued that the special squad must come up with a way for people to easily identify its members.

Although the human rights activist said that his organisation had only received reports of “harassment” by the force and there had been no reported deaths, Bishop Godwin Elomobor of a new generation church here, barely escaped death in a shoot-out with members of the squad.

He was shot in the thigh recently during an exchange of gun fire between him and several members of the force whom he mistook for armed robbers.

According to reports, Bishop Elomobor was returning from his church late in the evening when members of the team tried to stop his car. He thought they were robbers, refused to stop and a chase began.

The Bishop pulled out his double-barrel gun and started to fire at the men. He was injured when they fired back.

According to the Lagos State Police Commissioner Abubakar Tsav, the team had earlier received a radio message about a stolen car which was heading their way.

“Apparently the men saw his (the Bishop’s) car and ordered him to stop … He refused to stop and they chased him to a dead end where he jumped out and opened fire probably thinking that the men were armed robbers,” Tsav said, confirming the incident.

Police officials said members of “Operation Sweep” have been trained to quickly identify themselves to avoid incidents of mistaken identity.

When the group was formed, former Lagos State Commissioner of Police James Dambaba said that it had been decided that members of the unit should dress in civilian garb because “armed robbers can easily identify policemen in uniform”.

The unit has had good results, especially during the last six months when there were many arrests, a police source said. No figures on how many suspected criminals had been arrested were given.