The Network on Police Reform in Nigeria (NOPRIN) has urged the Lagos State Police Command to demonstrate that it would no longer tolerate flagrant abuses, misconduct and embarrassing activities by police officers attached to the Anti-Cultism Squad or any other unit.
NOPRIN made this known in its reactions to the Killing of Kolade Johnson by Operatives of the Special Anti-Cultism Squad (SACS), Lagos State Police Command.
In a press statement signed by its National Coordinator, Okechukwu Nwanguma, NOPRIN commends the Lagos State Police Command for promptly arresting the culprits, visiting and reassuring the family and Lagos residents of the Command’s commitment to justice and punishing abuses.
NOPRIN however stressed that beyond the Police’s commitment to justice, they must ensure such act is avoided subsequently.
NOPRIN, a network of 51 civil society organizations spread across Nigeria, and committed to promoting law enforcement accountability, transparent and responsible policing and respect for human rights, also urged the Command to ensure culpable officers are charged to court after they have been subjected to internal disciplinary procedures.
The statement added that, “NOPRIN condemns as reckless, unprovoked and unjustifiable, the killing of a youth, Kolade Johnson, on Sunday in the Mangoro area of Lagos State by police operatives from the Anti-Cultism Unit of the Lagos State Command.
“The killing of Kolade Johnson is the height of the atrocities committed daily by personnel of that unit and the seeming atmosphere of impunity that emboldens them to continue to engage in criminal activities and flagrant violation of the rights of citizens, particularly young people in Lagos.
“While cultism is a real problem in Lagos State that needs to be seriously tackled, the operatives of the Anti-Cultism Unit established to tackle this menace have over time found it convenient to hide under the pretext of clamping down on alleged cultists to harass, intimidate and extort money from innocent young people.”
READ FULL LETTER BELOW
April 2, 2019
The Commissioner of Police
Lagos State Police Command
Ikeja.
Dear Sir,
The Killing of Kolade Johnson by Operatives of the Special Anti-Cultism Squad (SACS), Lagos State Police Command:
Time for Lagos State Police Authorities to end the Excesses at the Anti-Cultism Squad, Bring perpetrators to Account and Sanitise the Unit
Network on Police Reform in Nigeria (NOPRIN) is a network of 51 civil society organizations spread across Nigeria, and committed to promoting law enforcement accountability, transparent and responsible policing and respect for human rights. It was established in 2000 to provide opportunity for civil society involvement in police reform, and the enhancement of safety, security and justice
NOPRIN condemns as reckless, unprovoked and unjustifiable, the killing of a youth, Kolade Johnson, on Sunday in the Mangoro area of Lagos State by police operatives from the Anti-Cultism Unit of the Lagos State Command.
NOPRIN commends the Lagos State Police Command for promptly arresting the culprits in this particular case, visiting and reassuring the family and Lagos residents of the Command’s commitment to justice and punishing abuses. NOPRIN respectfully urges the Command to demonstrate that it would no longer tolerate flagrant abuses, misconduct and embarrassing activities by police officers attached to this notorious, or any other, unit. The officers found to be responsible must be charged to court after they have been subjected to internal disciplinary procedures.
The killing of Kolade Johnson is the height of the atrocities committed daily by personnel of that unit and the seeming atmosphere of impunity that emboldens them to continue to engage in criminal activities and flagrant violation of the rights of citizens, particularly young people in Lagos.
While cultism is a real problem in Lagos State that needs to be seriously tackled, the operatives of the Anti-Cultism Unit established to tackle this menace have over time found it convenient to hide under the pretext of clamping down on alleged cultists to harass, intimidate and extort money from innocent young people. In the pretence of fighting cultism, they embark on routine raids leading to mass arrest of innocent young people sometimes after actual cult violence has taken place and the real ‘criminals’ dispersed. The scene of such an incident becomes a fertile ground for mass arrest and detention of innocent people with the sheer objective of extorting money from the victims. In some cases those who can’t afford money for bail are maliciously charged to court with false cultism charges. Some of the unit’s commonest grounds for adjudging young people as cultists is their hair style, tattoos and sundry other ridiculous considerations.
A Typical Case
On December 31, 2018 Yinka Badmus, a photojournalist was arrested at his neighbourhood in Shomolu because of his ‘hairstyle’. Mr Badmus said he was eating at a place near his home when a plain-clothed police officer walked up to him and ordered him into a waiting police vehicle. He was not told the crime he committed before he was detained. Mr Badmus said after his arrest, other young men were also arrested along Gbagada but when they got to the station, the police granted some of them bail for as much as between N60, 000 and N70, 000. ‘Because I didn’t commit any crime, I didn’t call anyone to bail me. ‘I was arraigned on January 5 and ended up in prison. I was told that I was arrested because of my hairstyle.’ Mr Badmus said he got a scholarship in the US to study but he can’t join the class now because he needs to keep appearing before the court.
Unethical style of operation
The operation that led to the killing of Kolade Johnson is typical and characteristic of the unethical mode of operations of the Anti-Cult Unit. As in previous cases, they were reported to have operated in an unmarked commercial bus when they went to the area on that Sunday afternoon in search of youths who ‘dressed wildly’ and ‘wearing dreadlocks.’
One of the witnesses was quoted by reports to have said that he and some others who were drinking at a bar saw what was happening and quickly explained to the policemen that the young man they were trying to arrest was not a ‘Yahoo’ boy. The operatives ignored them and kept dragging the boy to their vehicle. They shot in an attempt to disperse the crowd and the bullet hit Kolade from behind. He died on the way to the hospital at Ikeja.
NOPRIN has documented and intervened in some cases involving the Anti-Cult Unit which follow a similar pattern as described above. They frequently carry out illegal stop and search operations which target mainly young people who are profiled, harassed and subjected to illegal and intrusive bodily searches- including unauthorised search on their personal items- phones, wallets, laptop and laptop bags, etc., based on unfounded allegations that they are ‘Yahoo boys’, cultists, kidnappers, prostitutes, etc. We have also documented cases of what appear more like abduction of people by police officers. When police officers fail to identify or introduce themselves as police officers and simply order people into their vehicles, how do you then distinguish police officers from kidnappers or armed robbers?
A recent statement by NOPRIN highlighted ‘The predatory law enforcement style of the Anti-Cultism Unit of the Lagos State Police Command’.
According to the statement, ‘many of the officers attached to the Anti-Cultism Unit, Lagos State Police Command behave like predators.
While the dust raised by the arrest of Yinka Badmos in December 2018 by this unit over his hair style was yet to fully settle, we received yet another complaint on Wednesday February 27, 2019 from a lawyer that ‘a young man, Ikenna Emmanuel, was arrested at Fagba area by officers from this same unit. He was in the company of his teenage cousin and they were returning from Computer Village where they went to repair a phone. Police arrested him, chased his brother away and took him to ‘Anti-Cultism’ station at Charley Boy Bus Stop Gbagada. He’s currently there and the police officers are demanding for N60, 000 bail money. Please help’.
NOPRIN forwarded this information by text message to the CP Lagos, the State Police PRO and the Commander Anti Cultism. NOPRIN followed up with a call to the Commander who, understandably, did not answer. NOPRIN got some journalist and other human rights monitors involved. The OC, having received text messages and unanswered calls about this case, and sensing that the game was up, decided to hurriedly collect five thousand naira (N5, 000) from him and release him.
When the OC was called again after he had collected the money, he answered this time and denied having any such person in their custody
However, the brother to the victim later told NOPRIN that ‘the Commander told me that he was travelling this night and that I should bring what I have for him to release my brother before he travels. And he collected five thousand Naira and hurriedly released him and then denied having anyone with such name in his custody.’
Anti-kidnapping unit is not left out.
Operatives of the Anti-Kidnapping Unit dabble into civil matters such as landlord and tenant matters. Sometime in 2018 NOPRIN intervened to stop the unit from detaining and intimidating a pastor over a dispute with his landlady. The landlady sold the property where the pastor has his church while his tenancy was still subsisting and wanted to use the Anti-Kidnapping Unit where he probably knew an officer to force him out without refunding his outstanding money. They cooked up allegations of ‘threat to life’ against the pastor when there was no such thing at all- just to intimidate him.
One of the first steps that Mr. Imohimi Edgal took upon assuming office as CP Lagos was to remove the OC in charge of the Anti-Kidnapping Unit following a complaint about the unlawful detention and intimidation of a woman framed by her boss with stealing and extortion allegations just to get her out of work. Officers at that unity were also accused of sexually abusing the sisters of the victim when they came to visit her in detention.
Opportunity for Overhaul and Accountability
The killing of Kolade Johnson provides the opportunity for the Lagos State Police Command to comprehensively investigate the activities of this unit with a view to ensuring that necessary measures are taken to reorganise the unit, fish out and flush the bad eggs and bring the operations and conducts of personnel of the unit within the boundaries of law, civility, accountability and respect for the human rights.
We trust that with your record of professionalism and deep knowledge of, and experience in, community policing, you will bring about the needed reforms in Lagos State Police Command so as to restore public trust and community support and partnership in the Command’s safety and security efforts.
Yours sincerely,
Okechukwu Nwanguma
National Coordinator
08064974531
