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Nigerian Police have become untrained executioners, uniformed murders – Falana
“Without any rehabilitation for the untrained executioners, they are unleashed on the society with their guns. The uniformed murderers then turn round to use their weapons to kill members of the public including their own relations. Thus, the brutal killing of poor citizens by police and other security operatives has become a routine occurrence. But we only complain whenever the unlicensed police executioners kill lawyers, doctors, journalists and other victims whose killings trigger protests!”
These were the exact words of Femi Falana, one of Nigeria’s most celebrated human rights campaigners, as he weighed in on the killing of Bolanle Raheem, a lawyer, by a police officer in Ajah area of Lagos State, on Christmas day.
Joining in the condemnation, the fiery activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), took a different tone in asking that having tried many measures to curb police killing of innocent civilians over the past decades, advocated that groups like the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), must now lead a broad-based coordinated movement that would put a stop to the trend, using the latest incident.
Taking a dip into his personal experiences and records, Falana reeled out examples of extra-judicial killings, measures the police took to cover them up and the obvious helpless of several attempts t redeem the situation, concluding that nothing else would work as the trend would continue without concerted and drastic efforts.
In a statement, he personally signed, the human rights lawyer, said: “Nigerian lawyers must ensure that Mrs Bolanle Raheem does not die in vain like others who were dispatched to their untimely graves before her. Indeed, the best tribute that the NBA can pay to the deceased is to use her cold-blooded murder to mobilise the Nigerian people to end police brutality in Nigeria. To start with, police checkpoints must be removed from Nigerian roads. The roads should be patrolled by combined teams of officers from the police and road safety commission.”
The full statement, read: “The Nigerian Bar Association has condemned the brutal killing of one of its members, Mrs Bolanle Raheem, in Lagos on December 24, 2022, by a trigger-happy policeman. The suspect has been arrested and detained pending his arraignment for murder in the Lagos State High Court. The Inspector-General of Police, Mr Usman Alkali Baba and Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu, have decried the killing and assured the Nigerian people that justice would be served speedily. To demonstrate the abhorrence of the Government, the Attorney-General of Lagos State, Mr Moyosore Onigbanjo SAN will lead the prosecution team.
“President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed shock and complete disapproval of the horrendous killing, even though it is a common phenomenon under his administration. In the same vein, the presidential candidates of the leading political parties have berated the Nigeria Police Force over the killing. It is however curious to note that these political leaders have not informed Nigerian voters how they intend to end the extrajudicial killing of unarmed citizens by the police and other security agencies in the county if they win the 2023 presidential election.
“The cruel killing of Mrs Bolanle Raheem provides an opportunity for the Nigerian people led by lawyers to address the root cause of the extrajudicial killing of unarmed citizens by law enforcement officers. On July 15, 1981, Dele Udo, a United States-based athlete and a potential world beater in the 400 metres was shot dead by a trigger-happy policeman at Ojuelegba in Lagos State. That was the beginning of the reckless shooting of unarmed citizens by armed policemen and armed soldiers on the roads.
“Since then, hundreds of young people and other citizens have been killed in illegal checkpoints manned by drunk police and military personnel. The huge amount of money extorted from motorists via the checkpoints is allegedly shared by police and military officers. Hence, the cancellation of checkpoints by successive Inspectors- General of Police has never been faithfully enforced.
“It is pertinent to note that despite the demand of the human rights community for fundamental reform of the curriculum of the police academy the training of police cadets has remained as brutish as it was under the British colonial regime. Upon their graduation, the recruits usually unleash violence on a society that had dehumanised them in the police academy. Having been brutalised themselves, they derive pleasure in subjecting suspects to physical, mental and psychological torture. During the interrogation of a suspect, it is not uncommon for a policeman to threaten that “I will kill you and nothing will happen.”
“No doubt, the Nigeria Police Force is a neo-colonial institution in every material particular. It is deliberately called a police force and not a police department or police service. The logo of the force pictures an eagle standing on two crossed staves above an elephant. Like an elephant the colonial police force was set up to mow them down the natives, suppress and extort taxes from them to service British imperialism.
“In 1960, the nationalist politicians who inherited political power from the British colonial regime decided to retain the police force and use it to oppress the people. Hence, the killing of unarmed citizens by police and military personnel is not punished by the violent neocolonial State. Even monetary damages awarded by courts for unlawful killing of citizens and other forms of human rights abuse by police officers are never paid.
“Indeed, the payment of monetary damages awarded by courts is frustrated by Attorneys-General who refuse to grant leave to garnish the accounts of the Federal and State Governments. As if that is not bad enough, some Attorneys-General file nolle prosequi applications to terminate criminal cases involving highly connected murder suspects. The legal departments of the police is ever prepared to defend the unlawful killing of citizens by trigger-happy police personnel. Thus, the police personnel indicted for extrajudicial killings are promoted until they retire while a few of them had risen to the highest echelon in the force.
“Whenever there are protests against the unlawful killing of citizens by police personnel the Government moves to douse tension by setting up judicial or administrative commissions of inquiry to probe the remote and immediate causes of the civil disturbance. But the recommendations of such panels are usually ignored by the Governments. For instance, after the endsars protests in October 2020, the Federal Government and 28 out of the 36 state governments instituted judicial commissions of inquiry to probe various allegations of police brutality.
“After two years, the reports of the judicial panels have not been published by the majority of the state governments. The few that issued white papers have not fully implemented the recommendations of the judicial panels. Apart from payment of some monetary damages, the police officers indicted by the panels have not been prosecuted. Consequently, the brutalisation of the Nigerian people by the police and other security agencies has continued unabated.
“Even though the notorious Special Anti Robbery Squad (SARS) was disbanded in line with the demand of the #EndSARS protesters. In replacing the SARS with SWAT, the authorities promised that the operatives would undergo a retraining programme. As the retraining did not occur the SWAT officers have continued to terrorise and intimidate the people unabashedly, like the SARS. The implication of such official impunity is that the very many police officers indicted for extrajudicial killing of suspects and other citizens have been allowed to remain in the police force to continue to perpetrate their nefarious activities.
“Not too long ago, thousands of professional armed robbers and armed political thugs bribed and were recruited to the Nigeria Police Force. When a former President became aware of the scandalous recruitment, he ordered that the uniformed armed robbers be identified and flushed out of the Police. It is regrettable to note that the police authorities did try to do so but did not succeed in weeding out all the criminal elements from the police force.
“On a regular basis, kidnap, murder and terror suspects are paraded by police commissioners. But majority of the suspects are extrajudicially executed after the parade. The police claim that those who were charged with grave offences before the High Courts in the past and who were freed on technical grounds turned round to attack and kill the police officers who had arrested them. So, instead of prosecuting armed robbery and other dangerous criminal suspects they are extrajudicially killed by untrained executioners in the force.
“The suspects are usually shot in the back to give the impression that they were trying to escape from police custody. Thus, it is difficult to sue the police service commission for the illegal killing of suspects that have been “wasted” by the police. After the execution, no post-mortem is conducted while the bodies of the deceased are buried by the police at night. The money and other assets seized from the suspects are never returned to the family members or friends of the deceased but shared among police officers.
“Without any rehabilitation for the untrained executioners, they are unleashed on the society with their guns. The uniformed murderers then turn round to use their weapons to kill members of the public including their own relations. Thus, the brutal killing of poor citizens by police and other security operatives has become a routine occurrence. But we only complain whenever the unlicensed police executioners kill lawyers, doctors, journalists and other victims whose killings trigger protests!
“In exasperation, Mr. Boms Worgu, a former Attorney-General of Rivers State, has said that, “The Banabas Igwes of the NBA assassinated pair we remembered the other day. That was long ago. Recently, less than two years, there was Henry Ndionyenma Nwankwo, matcheted by still to be apprehended men, right there in his chambers. In PHC recently, two colleagues were similarly dispatched. And many more. In all, nothing happened after they were mowed down except wailing and condemnations. Soon, sadly though, this addition will blow over, calm will return only for the calm to be disrupted by another killing! That is how we are.”
“Nigerian lawyers must ensure that Mrs Bolanle Raheem does not die in vain like others who were dispatched to their untimely graves before her. Indeed, the best tribute that the NBA can pay to the deceased is to use her cold-blooded murder to mobilise the Nigerian people to end police brutality in Nigeria. To start with, police checkpoints must be removed from Nigerian roads. The roads should be patrolled by combined teams of officers from the police and road safety commission.
“The use of arms by policemen on duty should be strictly regulated according to the service rules. No lethal options such as batons, tear gas, water etc should be employed in dispersing crowds.
“In Femi Falana v Chief of Army Staff & Ors (Suit No. FHC/L/CS/1939/19), the presiding Judge, the Honourable Railwan Aikawa, estrdeclared that the involvement of armed soldiers in the maintenance of internal security is illegal and unconstitutional. On the basis of the judgment, all checkpoints manned by soldiers should be dismantled by the Chief of Army Staff without any further delay.
“In the recent case of the State Security Service v Godwin Emefiele (Suit No.FHC/ABJ/CS/2255/2022), the Federal High Court assigned and determined the case within two days because it pertained to the personal liberty of the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria. The NBA leadership should prevail on the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court and heads of other courts to ensure that all fundamental right cases are promptly assigned and expeditiously determined regardless of the class status of the applicants.
“The Anti -Torture Act of 2017 prescribes that any police officer or law enforcement officer who subjects a citizen to torture is liable to be tried and if convicted to imprisonment for 25 years. If any person dies as a result of torture the police officer indicted is liable to be tried for murder. The NBA should direct its human rights committees to take up all cases of torture meted out to citizens by public and private individuals in society.
“The NBA should prevail the Federal Government and State Governments to publish the reports and implement the recommendations of the judicial panels. Otherwise, the NBA should adopt legal measures to compel the Governments to implement the recommendations. Furthermore, the NBA should mount pressure on state governments to enact laws for the establishment of human rights bodies for the purpose of protecting the human rights of citizens. This was the principal resolution adopted by the National Economic Council after the #EndSARS protests.
“As a matter of urgency, the NBA should ensure that a legal practitioner is assigned to every police station to monitor human rights compliance in accordance with section 66 (3) of the Police Establishment Act 2020. The human rights committees of the 128 branches of the NBA should liaise with the National Human Rights Commission and the Legal Aid Council to ensure the observance of human rights in the country.
“The NBA should collaborate with State Attorneys-General towards the successful prosecution of police and military personnel who engage in the extrajudicial killing of criminal suspects and other citizens. At the same time, the unlawful killing of police officers by military officers and criminal gangs should always be challenged by Nigerian lawyers.
“The NBA should liaise with the police and military authorities to ensure that human rights course is made a compulsory subject in all police colleges and military academic institutions. This is the best way to ensure that members of the police and armed forces recognise their constitutional responsibilities to protect the life and property of every citizen.
“Finally, it is submitted that unless the above suggestions are implemented by the relevant stakeholders in alliance with the Nigerian people the callous killing of Mrs Bolanle Raheem will only be an addition to the long list of Nigerians that have been killed so recklessly by security forces. And it will be enormously tragic for society.”
President Bola Tinubu has directed the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) to investigate major technology companies and Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) platforms operating in Nigeria over allegations of anti-competitive practices, unlawful exploitation of news content and other potentially unfair market conduct.
The investigation follows a joint petition submitted to the Presidency by the Nigerian Press Organisation (NPO), comprising the Newspaper Proprietors’ Association of Nigeria (NPAN), the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), the Broadcasting Organisations of Nigeria (BON), and the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP).
Announcing the development in a statement on Monday, the FCCPC said the directive was conveyed by the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris.
“The Federal Government’s position was communicated to the FCCPC in a letter signed by the Honourable Minister of Information and National Orientation, Alhaji Mohammed Idris. The investigation promises to open a new vista in Nigeria’s media history.
“In recent years, concerns have been raised by the Nigerian media industry over the growing impact of certain digital platforms on the sustainability of the country’s news ecosystem. Specifically, the NPO is increasingly uncomfortable with major technology companies including Meta, Alphabet, X (formerly Twitter), and certain generative AI platforms, citing practices capable of undermining fair competition, the commercial viability of Nigerian media organisations, and the legitimate rights of content creators and publishers,” the Commission stated.
Reacting to the directive, the Executive Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the FCCPC, Mr. Tunji Bello, said the Commission would conduct an independent, transparent and evidence-based investigation.
“We recognise the strategic importance of the media to Nigeria’s democracy and the equally significant role of technology in driving innovation and economic growth. Our responsibility is to objectively determine the facts and ensure that competition within the digital ecosystem remains fair, transparent, and consistent with Nigerian law,” Bello said.
He stressed that the investigation should not be interpreted as a presumption of wrongdoing against any organisation, but as an opportunity to establish the facts through due process.
“Every party will be accorded a fair opportunity to present relevant information before any conclusions are reached. In specific terms, FCCPC will determine whether the practices in question constitute a breach of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act (FCCPA) 2018 or any other applicable law.
“In the past, FCCPC had investigated META and in 2025, won a landmark case against the tech giant for violations of FCCPA, including data breach, for which the tech giant was fined $220m. Meta has, however, appealed the fine,” the statement signed by Director of Corporate Affairs, Ondaje Ijagwu, added.
According to the FCCPC, the investigation will examine allegations of market dominance and potential anti-competitive conduct by the companies involved.
It will also probe claims of unauthorised extraction, scraping, ingestion or commercial use of copyrighted news articles, broadcast materials and other original journalistic content for developing and training Generative AI models.
Another key area of inquiry is the allegation that Nigerian news publishers have been denied meaningful opportunities to negotiate fair compensation or appropriate commercial arrangements for the use of their journalistic content.
The Commission noted that similar concerns had previously been raised in South Africa, where, following an investigation by the South African Competition Commission, it said Google agreed to compensate South African news media with R688 million ($40 million) annually for three to five years.
Nigerians, intent on getting to the root of the current fake agency scandal raving around the Presidency must start by ascertaining the whereabouts of the N27.5billion, said to have triggered off the entire saga.
Babachir Lawal, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), who weighed in on the scandal surrounding the purported Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), stressed on Monday night that Nigerians must not forget that the sharing formular regarding the amount, which is said to be the takeoff grant for the body, was the foundation of the dispute.
Recall that Adeniyi Adeyemi, Director General of the agency, after accusing Femi Gbajabiamila, Chief of Staff (CoS) to President Bola Tinubu, of collecting N400 million from him while awaiting a balance of N200million for facilitating his appointment, upped the ante by alleging that disagreement over the sharing formula of the grant triggered off the dispute.
Adeyemi had accused the CoS of demanding 48 per cent of the entire grant for himself, which he refused to part with, leading to the disagreement to the extent that the former Speaker of the House of Representatives now declaring war, which the Presidency relied on to declare the agency non-existence.
Babachir, a guest of Prime Time, a public affairs programme on ARISE NEWS Television, wondered why Nigerians were limiting themselves to the N1.3billion budgeted for the agency by the National Assembly in the 2026 appropriation without talking about the huger amount of N27.5billion.
Hear him: “Nigerians are talking about how 1.3 billion Naira was inserted into the budget. The man himself first said the quarrel came about because he refused to part with 48% of the 27-point-something billion Naira take-off grant. That money has been spent before this budget office was looking for the budget. Who gave him the money? It was not appropriated for; it’s not in any budget, that 27.5 billion Naira for which he says somebody demanded 48%. Who gave him the money? How did the process of generating the request for the release come up? How did it go through?
“We are just talking about the tip of the iceberg here. Down there, before we got to here, 27.5 billion Naira had already been disbursed, according to him, as a take-off grant. How did that money get to him? It was not in the budget. So, this is what should frighten us. If such money can go to a fictitious organisation, we only now begin to see it when we are quarreling about how did it get into the budget. How did that money get to them?
“I think we all know that thieves and armed robbers always fight and they expose themselves during sharing. His complaint was that the Presidency was after him because somebody demanded 48 per cent of the take-off grant of 27.5 billion Naira. And so, somebody was not happy since he refused to part with that money.
“So, you see, that’s how we got to know this to start with. That is the reason why we got to know this on his side of the coin. It’s about the sharing of the 27.5 billion Naira. That’s why the thing came up. So, it didn’t work. It should have worked before that money left the government coffers into the account of the agency.
“It depends on the will of the President. I can use myself as an example. When there was this brouhaha between me and the Senate, remember I was suspended for some time while an investigation was going on. So now, that is best practice.
“It’s already out of their hands. I believe now the thing is on the President’s desk. It is a legislative oversight. This government – this National Assembly – has no interest in scrutinising the budget that comes before them. Most of the legislators just go in there to earn their salaries and collect allowances and go. They don’t scrutinise the budget line by line. We all know how this particular government works. There are some people that when they talk, nobody else has the authority to contravene
“It’s not a one-off thing. The issue of buying appointments is not new. People have been hearing it as rumors, as allegations, all over that. In this government, people buy appointments. We’ve heard it on the streets. And so this is not a new thing. I don’t know in our time. Nobody was buying appointments. No, it’s not to my knowledge. It’s not to my knowledge that people buy appointments. It probably could be, but I wouldn’t know that. It’s not part of our mandate to know such things.
“This government doesn’t take governance seriously. When things like this happen, Nigerians are not surprised. We are only interested in this because we have an opportunity to poke attacks on the government, not because we don’t know that these things happen in this government. It’s so porous.
“There are so many power centers that, you know, nobody does a budget. Nobody implements a budget. Ministers go to the office and sit down and read newspapers. Overheads, maybe if they are lucky, it comes one per quarter, at least paid quarterly. Some governments don’t even get overheads. Everybody’s redundant. But there’s money being appropriated and money being spent, but nobody sees where the money is going to. So that is part of the loopholes.
“Why are you interested in 27.5 billion Naira that had already been collected and spent? We are talking about an agency that we are claiming doesn’t exist. Maybe it exists, but it doesn’t have a legal framework for its existence. But it exists. And there are a lot of powerful people that make sure it exists in that form. Those are the people we need to expose. The Chief of Staff, in particular, is so powerful. The SGF is there, just reneging on his responsibilities. And nothing has happened now.”
Explaining official procedures for documenting new agencies, the former SGF, said: “If an agency is received, processed, and forwarded without somebody asking in the SGF’s office exactly who these people are, it means there’s a dereliction of duty on the side of the SGF.
“The act setting up that agency will sometimes say the position has to be advertised, interviewed, and shortlisted names sent to the president for approval. Some, you just write and he just approves. So, the SGF will go through the file, and in that process of due diligence, will be able to find out whether such an organisation exists. If there is no record for it in the SGF’s office, he will raise a red flag on it.
“What we used to do is if there’s a new agency that either the President or a minister proposes to handle some specific assignments or duties, he will first of all raise a memo to the president, who will approve that such be created. And then a memo will be sent to the Federal Executive Council on that particular agency, and we’ll debate it.
“Now, sometimes it will require some legislation to give that agency a legal mandate to operate. Some will just be within the presidential approval, and then the agency is created. Because really, you cannot appropriate funds to an agency that has not been legislated for.
“There has to be a legal basis for its existence. But first of all, it is the executive that raises such an agency, makes the proposal, debates it, and the Attorney General of the Federation will normally put an opinion on it. Then, if the Federal Executive Council approves, it’s sent to the legislature for legal establishment.
“It should not have arisen in the first place if it is not a legally approved agency. It should not exist. And the SGF would know that if it doesn’t exist on any basis, why is he forwarding a request? If it doesn’t exist, such will not happen in our time.
“I’m sure the President would assume that such an entity has gone through all the checks and balances before it is established, and therefore, not every communication from that agency needs to be verified. But as far as it is coming through the office of the SGF, due diligence must be done first before it is forwarded.
“This SGF has been sidelined in a lot of things from what we hear. He has been sidelined in a lot of things. It’s institutional compromise, because in this, I sense there’s quite a big racket going on somewhere along the line. If the agency was created by maybe one big man alone, and then he wants to go through the budget process, the budget office assigns the budget code according to the chart of accounts in GIFMIS. So, how did they manage to assign the budget code for this agency that does not exist? Who inserted it?
“Because first of all, the budget office issues a budget call circular to MDAs, and everybody starts to prepare his budget according to the budget line. They give you ceilings, and you prepare your budget and forward it to the budget office as an agency or ministry. Now, the Ministry of Budget and Planning would, in our time, call every MDA to come and defend its budget. Now, if you don’t exist, how did they recognise that you are a genuine entity? Who gave out the budget code and allowed their budget to pass?
“That’s what oversight is. The SGF should be able to know, because before it gets to the National Assembly, that budget goes through the SGF. “Unless there’s a dereliction of duty by the SGF’s office, the responsibility to flag that this is a fake agency would have come from them.”
Sepp Blatter is unhappy with a situation where Donald Trump, would pick up his phone and call on the Federation of Internation Football Associations (FIFA) to change its established rules as has now emerged in the case of Folarin Balogun, a strike in the United States squad currently at the World Cup.
Balogun, a Nigerian-US citizen, is supposed to miss a match between his country and Belgium in the Round of 16, on Monday, following a red card he picked in the last encounter of the team between Bosnia and Herzegovina.
However, it has now been revealed that the intervention of the President of the United States, who reportedly called Gianni Infantino, current FIFA President to review Balogun’s automatic one-game suspension, saw to the world’s footballing regulator acquiescing by shifting the implementation of the ban by a year.
Railing on the development, which would now make the 25-year-old eligible to file out against Belgium in the last 16 of the World Cup later on Monday, Blatter, disgraced out of the FIFA Presidency in 2015, wrote on X: “Red cards are not overturned by political phone calls,” scandal-hit Blatter said on X.
“They are overturned by rules, evidence and independent bodies. If a US President intervenes with the FIFA President — and a player is suddenly cleared before a World Cup knockout match — the question is unavoidable: Quo vadis (Where are you going), FIFA?”
The 90-year-old former FIFA boss, a usual critic of Infantino, who once told Bild, German newspaper in February that the new FIFA had become a “dictator,” added: “Football must never become a playground for political power.”
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