Nigeria: Mrs Joy Ifije, the widow, visits Governor Oshiomhole

As things turn

On Saturday, I wrote, Nigeria: How Humanity Lost Oshiomhole and Gained a Widow and waited to see how things would pan out. The concerns in that blog remain valid much as the governor has now addressed the particular; the general is in need of action too.

Probably, the consensus is that Adams Oshiomhole, the Edo State governor, has dramatically redeemed himself after the video of the excoriation of the widow on Benin-City streets where he told her to, “Go and die!”

The widow, Mrs Joy Ifije was sought out by the governor, and after extraneous attempts to justify his intemperate expression, employed her as an activist for the cause of chasing street hawkers off the roads, presented he with a large brown parcel of cash totally NGN 2 million ($12,620) and a scholarship for her son.

The governor’s advice was that she put it first in the bank and eventually use it to setup shop to trade on legal trading premises – it would appear all’s well, ends well.

The viral video did it

However, if we must review this situation properly, the event where the Mrs Joy Ifije was dehumanised was recorded over a fortnight ago, but the video when viral last week, the consequences of which must have forced the governor to address a serious public relations gaffe.

The governor himself said his daughters had asked him to attend to the issue too, it had become too much of an embarrassment as some even found to make political capital out of her misery to doubly embarrass the governor.

Walk a mile in her shoes

Much as one cannot suggest that beyond the direct apology to Mrs Joy Ifije, the compensation she got was state money, some Utopian idealists would have preferred she spurn the governor and reject his gift.

My answer to them was that they walk a mile in Mrs Joy Ifije’s shoes and it is very probable that from their gilded cages of privilege and opportunity they would never have understood to any degree the situation of her widowhood. That, along with the pressures to meet the needs of her immediate family and other societal demands that placed her in the situation she found herself in the first encounter with the governor.

Sadly, some were keen to limit the outpouring of goodwill and sympathy that followed the publication of that video to make the point of ridiculing the governor whilst for a second time making an example of Mrs Joy Ifije.

For the greater social good

There is the particular of what happened between the governor and the widow and there is the general of what the social consequences of driving street hawkers off the roads without providing safe, adequate, affordable or subsidised trading places for their wares.

Street hawking is the source of many livelihoods, people resort to this because they cannot access the formal market areas for many reasons too many to mention. It is unlikely that any would resort to the streets if they had the means to rent market stall spaces and fill those stores with wares and goods to ensure the business thrives beyond breaking even to profitability.

That should become the bigger welfarist goal of the governor.

A wonderful change has come for her

Nevertheless, one thing must not be lost on us, the fact that if that video did not go viral, it is unlikely Mrs Joy Ifije’s circumstances would have been altered.

Certain eagle-eyed observers noted that Mrs Joy Ifije did not seem to have changed her clothes from her first encounter; one cannot read too much into that as much as it probably tells a deeper story of her situation.

We can only hope that what she got along with other generous contributions will put her on the right path to sufficiency and success. Along with the two children who accompanied her, I wish her the very best and that her sorrows and hardships become things of a long distant memory.

Much as Adams Oshiomhole appears to have acquitted himself well in being responsive and understanding of his unfortunate folly, it is yet to be seen if whether on or off record, after he became governor he was ever a nicer man than what obtain in the “Go and die!” video – time will tell.

Nigeria: How Humanity Lost Oshiomhole and Gained a Widow

The global theatre of local events

The Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, a one-time trader unionist took the opportunity to visit the streets of his entire to chase away street traders as per the law of the land. [Wikipedia]

One encounter became the theatre of a video recording where a widow in flailing and very pitiable supplication appealed to the humanity and consideration of the governor, but he ignored her. [Sahara Reporters - YouTube]

Just so cruel

To compound her humiliation and denigration with the knowledge of her somewhat dire or desperate circumstances, the governor in full strut of princely omnipotence flippantly told her to, “Go and die”, as her wares were grabbed by the egregious thuggery of the law enforcement agents that accompanied the governor.

We can all appreciate that the Edo State Government wants to rid the streets of hawkers, and they have identified that they are an accident risk, but in a case of giving the dog a bad name to justify harming it; stret hawkers have been maligned as thieves, vermin and obstructions to the free flow of traffic. [Edo State Government]

What the government has not identified in their assailing on the underprivileged who subsist on chance encounter of custom for their livelihood is alternative, affordable, safe and subsidised hawking areas or premises they can move these people into, if they really want to address a menace. [Edo State Government]

Cart before the horse

In 2009, these street traders were given a two-day ultimatum to clear off the streets as if there would be no social consequence for legitimising destitution in the name of beautifying and cleaning up the main city centres.

One can posit that the real menace of theft, obstruction and crime will increase if people do not have the means to earn a livelihood in the absence of jobs, have affordable places to trade, have the absence of welfare support or have no new or sponsored means of alternative engagement of their skills and idle labour.

It beggars belief that a man who cut his teeth on labour and trade unionist activity will now be the nemesis of the underprivileged, and that is a great shame.

The act of street trading is a crime that should be stopped. According to section 53(1c) of the State Environment Waste Management Board regulation of 2006, any individual who sets up a stall or a trading spot in an unauthorized area has committed an offence which is punishable in the court of law and for those street traders who specialize in the sales of audio and visual compact discs, who blare their music as a way of advertising their goods, section 51(1) states that no equipment or facility capable of producing noise above 85 decibels should be used by any individual for more than four hours a day, this makes them also liable to the law. [Edo State Government]

Breaking laws through law enforcement

Now, if street trading has been criminalised and such persons have been identified as committing an offence, the law requires that the offender be punished in a court of law.

It is understood that the Governor as the chief law officer of the state should be seen to uphold the law, but nothing in that video demonstrates that he was doing anything of the sort.

The widow had her goods confiscated and the Governor could be heard saying she should not be taken away; by inference the widow was not going to be charged to court.

Now, as the Executive Governor, it is possible that the governor had arrogated to himself the powers of a court and in that encounter constituted a kangaroo court to be the judge and the jury of the woman. Thereby exercising the power to proscribe, to excoriate and to punish, but that would add the licence of egregious impunity to the immunity from prosecution the governor already enjoys as a constitutional right when in office.

One engagement did suggest in our discussion on Twitter that the widow was deploying the fallacy of argumentum ad misericordiam, the appeal to pity, but if this issue did end up in court, the mitigation pleas to the judge will deploy this fallacy to temper justice with mercy.

Regret is not apology

We should be human beings first before we find the weak to sacrifice on the altar of proving potency and ability to rule with an iron fist.

Adams Oshiomhole, by design and for the opportunity went on a public law enforcement raid of the street traders to make an example of someone, but providence and circumstance of the person of a widow, her pleadings, his intemperance, the recording and the viral reach of the event as he stood as unconstitutional judge seems to have backfired.

He has expressed regret at his choice of words, but that does not constitute an apology to the woman he treated with the most reprehensible disdain. Even criminals, but in this case, until charged, she was still a suspect, have rights and the least that can be expected of a person in authority like the governor is to treat any Nigerian citizen, no matter how lowly with respect, dignity and courtesy – that is just basic humanity. [DailyPost]

How revolutions are triggered

Many viewers of that video were touched by the plight of the widow and were utterly repulsed by the lack of comportment of the governor that she might well be helped by funds being raised for her cause – there is no saying that she might become a figurehead against the egregious abuse of power and privilege of the Nigerian ruling class. [Nigerian Tribune]

The Arab Spring was set off by the mistreatment of Mohammed Bouazizi, a street vendor in Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia, the list of injustices in Nigeria is piling up, and no one can tell which of the many documented flagrant abuses would become the catalyst for a national insurrection that could usher in a Bastille moment in Nigeria. [Wikipedia] [Wikipedia]

Consider the human consequences of making bad laws

Yes, the law must be upheld, but when it affects people, enacting laws and enforcing them without consideration for the social consequences of the law is at first atrocious and then heartlessly lacking in vision, foresight, compassion or humanity.

On the balance of what appeals to our humanity as opposed to the atmospherics of environmental comfort and conduciveness, I am with the widow for an apology, adequate redress, prompt restitution and effective rehabilitation. Then for a broader plan to help alleviate the sufferings of street hawkers by offering them affordable, safe and accessible places to ply their trade.

Nigeria: No Country for Vulnerable Children

The regularity is inuring

Pastor accused of raping 12-year-old girl, I have read too many headlines like this in Nigerian newspapers that I have no more bothered to read the story, as if it is so commonplace, I am almost dangerously inured to it.

Something about this story was striking, in fact, too many things in this story meant a good 12 hours after reading it, I had this nagging feeling that I had to comment on the issue.

A vulnerable young girl had been brought over from the village, vulnerable in the sense that she was only two weeks in the city, she could speak neither the local language nor English and she was staying with her aunt besides the fact that she was just 12.

That a 12-year old could not speak a word of English in Nigeria in 2012 is the subject of another day, but it calls for serious discussion.

Groomed and raped

This was an Igbo girl in Yorubaland and besides her aunt, there was this neighbour, a Pastor who apparently is Yoruba who could also speak Igbo and so the conversation started where the Pastor began grooming the girl, lured her into the detached communal toilet, covered her mouth and raped her; by first sodomising her and then taking away her virginity.

Her aunt almost caught them in the act and upon inquiring of the girl, she learnt of what had happened and apparently immediately rushed the girl to hospital where she was examined and it was found that she had bruises to both her anal and virginal regions with sperm residue found in the vagina.

A victim to exculpate the criminal

The Pastor had however fled and in the process commenced an unconscionable damage limitation exercise that included stigmatising a vulnerable 6-year old girl who was labelled a witch by his church members; she was brutalised and paraded in public having been accused of bewitching the Pastor leading to his helplessly falling prey to being a rapist. This is no sarcasm; this is what the people really did believe.

This poor 6-year old girl was then left under the exorcist ministry of this rotten paedophile to be delivered of her witchcraft powers – the tale reads like a Steven King horror novel, only that there are real victims involved.

Interminable days

Meanwhile, it took two days after the rape of that child for her aunt to report the crime to the police and it took another two days for the Pastor to be apprehended. A couple of days later, the Pastor was released without charge into the community as if absolved because the courts were not in session to charge the man with any offence.

In fact, the charges were dropped by the police as they are wont to in cases like this, the most the perpetrator suffers is the demand that he defrays the hospital costs of the victim and the rotten paedophile is granted bail to return to the scene of the crime amongst other vulnerable persons where he can intimidate the witnesses and pervert the course of justice.

Now, the police are taking the heat for their lackadaisical attitude to this heinous paedophile criminality that they have suggested when the courts are back in session the paedophile pastor will be charged.

The dread of Syncretism

The spokesperson for the state police command is Ngozi Braide, a lady and I cannot say if she is a mother too, who was filled with as much indignation and rage as to acknowledge that the girl was raped and concluded with - “The pastor is in charge of a white garment church in the area. He will be charged with sodomy. He was released on bail because courts are not sitting but once courts resume, he will be charged.” Really? Just sodomy?

Herein is the big problem, African-initiated white garment churches have a brand of Syncretism that melds elements of animist and Shamanist belief systems with Christianity and it derives most of its doctrinal teachings from the Pentateuch, reciting the Psalms with the fieriness of people under altered states of consciousness, given to mass hysteria whilst believing in demonic possession, witchcraft and voodoo relieving people of their free moral agency.

The unpalatable sway the leaders of these sects hold over the community literally gives them criminal impunity and even in the face of compelling evidence, they are able to operate outside the ambit of the law for the fact that people fear them and whatever powers they might abuse to extricate themselves from criminal sanction.

We are embarrassed

The society at large is scandalised and embarrassed by incidents of paedophile criminality that they will rather sweep the matter under the carpet than agitate to have it prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

The victims however receive no psychological help beyond medical examination to prove that the child has been violated and medical establishments do not take on the social responsibility burden of addressing the long term consequences of the sexual violation of minorities, we generally assume time eventually heals the pain and wipes out the memories of such events from the mind of the child.

Witchcraft stigmatisation

The poor child who was stigmatised as a witch might probably have had learning difficulties which the illiterate and ignorant may not understand, these helpless children especially if orphaned are ready brutalisation fodder for unscrupulously rotten religious leaders to mesmerise their flock into believing incredibly atrocious tales.

Injustice is compounded by evil under the guise of religion leaving child victims in their wake as if this is no country for children.

A grave injustice lingers

We need to re-school ourselves and begin to give the vulnerable a voice, the cause for justice for the victim must be paramount and above all allegiances no matter how deep – when a child is raped or stigmatised, it must become a compelling priority to see to it that all perpetrators, conspirators and accessories to that criminality are corralled and charged accordingly to ensure no other children suffer at the hands of these purveyors of reprehensible evil.

We can no more pretend that child sexual abuse does not occur amongst us and we should not be embarrassed to expose all those who tolerate it amongst us.

At the same time, we should be discerning of the fact that when a child is stigmatised as a witch, it is usually a distraction from other unspeakable evils and a smokescreen for contemptible deeds.

No child should ever be sacrificed on the altar of any belief system, no good can come out of brutalising the child either to save it or the community within which it lives, our dread for the supernatural must stop long before a hand is lifted against the child and reason prevail always.

It is time for children to feel safer in Nigeria.

Burning Up The Rapist's Manual

This is my contribution to 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence Say No – Unite to end violence against women.

Loving rape

This topic always gets to me and it has become one of the ones I have returned to write about again and again.

The issue is rape but worse still, it is the justification of rape by reason of what some might call indecent, ungodly, improper or provocative dressing.

This school of thinking that included an Attorney General in Nigeria suggests that the rape victim is almost entirely responsible for their rape because their dressing provoked the rapist to act uncontrollably such that the rapist had to satisfy the jungle animal lust presented by sighting a provocatively dressed object of desire.

Animals, we are not

I could well agree if this happened amongst animals but out there in the jungle animals are not in clothes and essentially they are not human-beings.

In fact, even in communities where nudity exists as a matter of course, I doubt those societies violate the bodies of each other without consent, as human-beings we are civilised and one element of civilisation is self-restraint in the face of serious provocation.

We are equal

Another issue I want to address is that of relationships between men and women in society. From a moral standpoint there is a tendency to dehumanise and objectify our womenfolk with the idea that the male gender collectively and individually automatically have lien over all women to such an extent that men believe they should have control on all issues that affect women.

That is why we still have to content with issues of rights, rape, abortion, trafficking, abuse, harassment, dressing, mutilations and much else with the law almost giving perpetrators the licence of impunity without consequence.

Women have rights

I contend that beyond the primary sphere of influence if there be one that subscribes to the primitive view of the inequality of the sexes, the woman out in the street minding her own business in whatever state of dress she might be in is in her own right an individual, equal before the law and she should be able to make the decisions she deems fit for how she presents anywhere she have the right to be at.

We cannot because we are men attempt to control every woman as if we are husband, father, son, brother, nephew or relation to suit some preconceived notion of some play being honour and dishonour requiring violent sanction.

No licence to violate

Basically, no man by nature, by law or by divine instruction has acquired the right and licence to violate another person for whatever purposes they might want to use to justify that heinous act. This applies to rape, sexual abuse, physical violence or harassment and we need to address whatever allows us to condone any violation forthwith.

In a series of tweets that I have collated into a Storify titled The Rapist’s Manual, the total sum of my compelling argument is found in this tweet - Let me as categorical as I can ever be. There can NEVER EVER be any grounds or mitigating circumstances for rape.

If I were to leave my readers with one analogy framed in a question it would be this – If a woman is responsible for her rape because of her indecent dressing, are you responsible for an armed robber pointing a gun at you?

Further Reading

A Hard Look At Violence Against Women – The Resurgence

3 commissioners suspended for improper dressing in Ebonyi State, Nigeria

Violence Against Women Online Resources

#ABSURape: It is now justice or bust on Social Media

They walked

I should have gone to bed but after reading the news story that the police were of the opinion that the ABSU gang rape (Twitter hashtag #ABSURape) victim agreed to be raped [1]; all gloves had to come off.

On the 5^th of October 2011, walks to protest the #ABSURape were organised to take place in Umuahia, the capital of Abia State, Abuja and Lagos, the walks were seriously militated against by the Abia State government with radio jingles advising people not to support the initiative, the walkers were then briefly harassed by the security services.

In Abuja, the walkers got to meet certain ministry officials though much was done to prevent it from happening but in Lagos, they did walk to the Abia State Liaison Office where forceful representations were made on this matter.

My reports of these walks were gleaned from postings made on Twitter, other participants can provide more detailed information about what they experienced, we have to address a more serious burning issue.

So, he watched that DVD

The Abia State Police Command has apparently suspended investigations into the gang rape with the view that the girl victim consented to the rape.

Now, I find it impossible to get it round my little head from what has been reported by those who have viewed that video that the said victim was looking forward to a sex orgy by any stretch of the imagination.

A J. G. Micloth who is the Assistant Commissioner of Police in charge of the state’s Criminal Investigation Department said he watched the DVD “tape” sent to him and could not see the young lady resisting the rape.

In trying to exculpate the police from taking any responsibility for solving the crime, he suggested the suspects could not be identified from the legs amongst the possible 70 million Nigerian males, which is fair enough.

Some serious questions

However, in the next statement there is a clear abdication of responsibility and a default to the tolerance if not the condoning of sexual violence when he first said, “gang rape is often videoed as a tool by under-graduate boys to rubbish the self-esteem of snobbish girls.”

The questions that arise from that statement are:

So the police recognise gang rape as a tool and are unconcerned about it?

Is mutual consent not required for the recording of any sexual activity?

Do girls have no right to be snobbish and deny advances from boys they are not interested in and be protected from such menace?

When did our society degenerate to the level that such activity by undergraduate boys had become the norm that the police did not care that it happened?

How can a policeman of such a high-ranking utter such statements without any consequence?

Is there a definition of rape in Nigeria?

Then he went on to say, “even if the lady had not consented,” which introduces the suspicion of rape that the policeman had turned into a triviality with the flippant nature of his comment.

He then figured, “that she was a girlfriend to one of the cultists and must have probably cheated on him and when queried ‘insulted’ the boy hence he probably assembled a gang to teach her the lesson of her life.”

So, without any proof whatsoever, he had come to the conclusion that the end of teaching her the lesson of her life had been justified because her supposed boyfriend had been insulted when he questioned her about a possible allegation of cheating on him.

Reviewing the statements together, the policemen has decided that even without consent, but for the sake of teaching her a lesson, it was not rape.

It really beggars belief that it is no more law enforcement working through the proper legal process of aggrievement or crime, investigation, arraignment, adjudication and punishment that in the words of the policeman, teaches “the lesson of [his/]her life” but as it were, jilted undergraduate Nigerian men can take the law into their own hands with impunity, rape women with no consequence and find support from the police that the supposed victim was having a nice time.

A rotten investigation

Now, obviously, the names that have before appeared in the media have been said not to belong to the alleged rapists but innocent persons who were helping researchers ascertain who the victim was and hopefully elicit who the rapists were too.

The police however contend that they have combed the records of the university and visited the supposed locations of the gang rape act and concluded there were no such students at the university.

The only respite in this sordidly unbelievable tale is that the police have offered NGN 500,000 as a reward leading to the arrest of the culprits; this I believe will be augmented with the NGN 200,000 stumped up in the name of the Enough is Enough Organisation.

In all, we have to recognise that the university, the government and the police have from the onset been more than reluctant to take on this case, in fact, they have been hoping that the clamour for justice will wane over time as they twiddled their thumbs in denial and indifference.

There are no words to describe the view of the governor of the state when he suggested the rape video was staged by his political detractors to discredit him and his government; it plumbs the depths of inhumanity that will give the devil second place that no compassion has been shown towards the victim apart from the desperate attempts to close down this heinous crime wishing any remembrance of it will not go away.

Social media activism is it

Once again, we need to redouble our efforts on every forum and by every means to get these men and much as we would hate for the victim to have to relive the ordeal she went through, no justice is served for her or the impunity to commit other crimes if information cannot be coaxed to apprehend them and have them severely punished.

It goes without saying that one’s confidence in the Abia State Police Command to pursue this investigation to a conclusion is lacking, they are prejudiced if not voyeuristically pleasured by the DVD than to see what their duty to society is and it is appalling that such can represent law enforcement even in the dungeons of the harshest cruelty in this whole wide world.

It would appear the Situation Room for this crime returns once again to social media where injustices might well be compounded but everything and I dare say anything must be done to apprehend those cockroaches – this #ABSURape must not go unpunished and by God let it be those 5 men and none else.

As for those who condemned the social media activism as tabloid stupidity, they had better come off their high horses and sanctimonious disavowal with some constructive ideas as to how to help the victim and apprehend the culprits; enough of playing smart, carping from the side-lines with feigned righteous indignation.

Source

[1] ABSU gang rape: Victim agreed to be raped – Police | Vanguard

Editorial: The many issues around the #ABSURape

A video gone viral

The last week saw the gathering of emotions and revulsion at the video of a lady who from reports of viewers suggested she was being gang-raped by 4, maybe 5 men.

The video had gone viral and it appeal to the humanity in many of us to sue for the apprehension and arraignment of the men involved to the point that justice will be done and seen to be done.

Apparently, the recording of this atrociously evil act was made on the 16^th of August 2011 and it had been circulating within the campus of Abia State University that goes by the acronym ABSU.

Impunity and entitlement

For all the clamour for retribution and justice there seems to be a lot awry that we cannot somehow confidently expect that what we desire will be realised.

The lady, the victim might have gone to ground nursing her wounds that would range from emotional to physical and anything in between that might not find succour, comfort or respite – justice is probably the furthest thing from her mind – she might just want the event to be a haze, an unrecalled memory as if it never happened.

The video suggests that she was being punished with rape as weapon of vindictiveness and torture just because she somewhat disrespected one of the men.

That presents another problem, a society that thrives on inclination of the certain people feeling they have complete entitlement and can with impunity act criminally expecting nothing to come of it because they have the tacit approval of society to revel in lawlessness because the law is handicapped or they have the means to suborn every process that will attempt to bring them to book.

Inured for titillation

That is the possible precipitous decline into anarchy we face if these attitudes are not arrested and punitively sanctioned not only as a deterrent but as a message that society will no more brook such manners in our communities.

Beyond this there is another niggling problem, whilst watching the video might well have elicited evidence that the law could use, there are some whose intention was to derive the titillation element rather that than the social justice push – we have somewhat become inured to such violence and violation that some even thought the lady was almost too docile to have the video depicted as the recording of a gang rape.

One is left to throw up ones hands in exasperation; we have great difficulty dealing with sexual crimes in Nigeria from child sexual abuse through to rape and the denigration of women. An incipient and sinister interpretation of religious laws allows for women to be treated with disdain.

Our lawful acquiescence to injustice

In some cases, the onus is pushed on the woman to appear in a certain way in order to not to be preyed upon by rabid men with untrammelled passions redolent of the jungle. The Nigerian male is almost allowed by law to be absolved of responsibility for being unable to control themselves – it is like a somewhat “indecently” dressed lady has it coming, she is ready fodder for abuse and much more and she has no recourse for justice.

The ladies are not helped by women legislators who help perpetrate this atrocity on their fellow womenfolk with the silliest laws about dress ever to be promulgated that at a UN meeting of women they were ridiculed for their risible ideas.

The same difficulty in tackling sexual crimes is what drove the university and the state government to deny the rape ever happened. It ploughed the depths of incredulity when the governor suggested the video was created by detractors to discredit his government.

Unable to handle the matter

The Minister for Youth Development should be commended for trying to get to the bottom of this matter, the rape did happen and whilst it might not have happened on the campus of the university, there is no doubt that certain parties to that criminality were or are students of ABSU and for that reason along both the university and the government should engage and work to uncovering all those who have brought shame on the state.

A member of the House of Representatives moved a motion on this matter and there was one who suggested there were many more pressing issues than rape to deal with.

At which point one can only say our political representation is completely oblivious of the rights of the individual and the need for social justice, besides it also shows how deeply ingrained our toleration of sexual crimes is that it is take as par for the course.

The social media devil

Social media has been agog with this story and it is probably what gave rise to the more general coverage that extended in international new sites. There are many concerns with this, in the quest for justice some have been falsely accused such that the collateral damage in resolving this case might hit a lot more people and shatter reputations.

The authorities have their share of blame for this, if they had been proactive to investigating the rape rather than defaulting to denial and had set up an incident desk for the matter, all information would have been channelled there rather than on the unfettered and unregulated forum of social media communications.

In any event the Minister for Women finally gave voice to the matter not to seek solutions but to offer another one of those political platitudes, they are concerned about welfare and well, the case just founders in inactivity and reticence because even though our huge population is a by-product of sexual activity we are still quite squeamish about sex.

A long fight in the making

There are strongholds and barriers to take down and one can only hope that it starts with the concerted efforts of every Nigerian with a heart and soul working to ensure that those men do not go unpunished and hopefully that lady can also get all the help and therapy she needs to rebuild her life.

We still have a long way to go on this matter, in fact, what it brought to light was that campus rapes happen quite frequently and nothing really gets done about it – that, my friends, is utterly, utterly untenable.

Nigeria: Torture defended as standard police procedure

The rickety stool of the hamlet

With the way every nonentity incapable of achieving peer-reviewed and internationally recognised titles borne of the dint of cranial-matter exertion, I was not too worried about the title of heir apparent.

The number of frogs that are princes and ugly ducklings that are princesses in Nigeria has cheapened the idea of being titled that plain formal address as Mr, Ms, Mrs or academic titles seem to be more respectable without the baggage of being tagged a crook.

The issue here was that an heir apparent to the rickety stool at a hamlet in a backwater of Yorubaland had come to nought in police custody [1] having gone there to report a robbery. Mercifully given to hyperbole, the copywriter assumed every community title had a throne.

Suspicious of reporting a crime

The search for justice in Nigeria is a difficult one; in fact, the search for a police force that acts anything like a civilised and professional service in Nigeria is fraught with danger where any contact with the police could lead to the loss of life.

The man, mechanic having notice that his workshop had been burgled called on a scion of the mechanics community and with him went to report the burglary to the police. He had this witness to forestall a situation where the police would have acted funny, but it made no difference.

Unbeknownst to him, his boss had already reported the matter to the police, strangely the police did not go out to investigate or gather clues as to the matter, it just went into file.

As the man reported the burglary, the other report came out of the file and though one cannot say what the boss had reported, the man was arrested.

Of guilt and innocence by sides

The shocking revelation but everyday reality with the Nigerian Police is that the plaintiff or accuser is always considered innocent and the defendant is automatically considered guilty with the full force of unlawful restraint visited on the person without interrogation.

In fact, for plaintiff, read first mover, richer person, influential community leader or an influence peddler – a plaintiff is not so much a complainant seeking redress, rather it is someone seeking to oppress with menace in such a way that the person on the receiving end is taught a lesson regardless of the person’s innocence or guilt.

Committed suicide by himself

Somehow, this man in police custody for 48 hours suddenly died – or as Divisional Police Officer Ben Osuji averred, Dauda Najeem had committed suicide by himself in the cell.

I am a bit confused by that construction, if he did commit suicide, it by implication means he did it himself, but when by himself is added for emphasis, I suspect the suicide might also have been assisted – when this happens in police custody, it is an extra-judicial killing, a murder by the authorities and someone needs to get to the bottom of the case.

Somehow, if Mr. Najeem had committed suicide by hanging, even the police should have a Polaroid camera to record the scene of the hanging as the first course of action on discovery of the man.

The impunity of glaring police negligence

So many things are amiss in this situation, the police were supposed to conduct hourly checks on the cells and in fact monitor those who might be susceptible to self-harm. Somehow, Mr. Najeem could not have been suicidal; he was overjoyed at the arrival of his new son, his close-knit family seem to be quite integral to his life and as the only son was the heir-apparent.

The police were not as forthcoming as they should be in circumstance of serious public interest and concern as the head of the state Criminal Investigation Department offered as much information as to say that only the Commissioner of Police could ask him questions about the case.

It leaves one wondering if there is any accountability of law enforcement in a democracy in the first instance and if law enforcement really realises that their existence depends on confidence that the public has in their ability to enforce law and order as well as serve as the first port of call for complain and conflict resolution.

Humiliation, not a justice function

There is no indication as to how the man hanged himself apart from the reference that the man was in his trousers, hopefully that is always the case, there is no reason to completely denigrate and humiliate a man because he is a suspect.

Even so, if the man is charged and arraigned before a court where due process is followed; the sentence meted out should be punishment fit for the crime, if it causes humiliation it should be a matter of how the punished has reacted to the punishment, it is not the function of the courts to create the moral context for humiliating redress.

TORTURE!

However, it would appear we are closer to the truth about the cause of death when a word creeps into the story – TORTURE. Apparently, torture is the main means of extracting information from suspects in the Nigerian Police Force – this really makes you sick.

I can only quote verbatim the opinion of a top police officer who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Torture would continue to be a weapon for extracting information from suspects as long as modern high technology investigative gadgets were not provided to the police.”

He goes on to say, “We have no tools. In as much as we are not sorcerers, there is no way we could unravel many cases without the use of torture. Look at the type of gadgets used by European and American detectives. The efficiency of their police dissuades criminally-minded people from committing crime because they know they will be caught. And when suspects are caught, they quickly own up because they know that the police will get to the root of the crime.”

Flawed criminal investigation ideas

Where do I begin to break down this flawed philosophy of criminal investigation?

I do wonder if the modern high technology investigative gadgets alluded to are basic detective work with the use of common sense and deduction, fundamental forensics or thumbscrews.

Maybe lie detectors could be useful but you need good questions to arrive at some useful answers but they cannot be the basis of case argued beyond reasonable doubt.

I would agree that the police are not sorcerers, clairvoyants or seers, but if the replacement for detective and investigative work is condensed to torture as a means of solving cases, nothing could be as uncivilised and barbaric as to have that as a fundamental criminal investigation procedure.

A fallacy and a fantasy

The assertion that the efficiency of the police dissuades criminally-minded people is a fallacy if I ever heard one – but this is typically Nigerian where supposedly knowledgeable people make unsupportable statements about some view abroad and use that as a basis of unchallengeable authority.

Since people do not bother to check the facts or ascertain the veracity of such outlandish statements those views are taken as gospel truth and they become part of the accepted body of Nigerian knowledge.

When suspects are caught, they quickly own up? Not in the Europe I live in and not in the America that I have read about – it makes you wonder what constitutes the curriculum of our police forces and where these myths of policing and crime resolution come from.

I would contend these people need no tools or gadgets, if you cannot use basic commonsense and deduction to research a situation you definitely cannot move on to the sophistication of some tools which presumably are supposed to extract the truth without causing pain.

Torture cannot elicit the truth in truth

What baffles me more is the notion that torture, the inflicting of pain can elicit the truth about a situation. Supposedly the police have not cottoned on the idea that a person might just admit to anything in the natural tendency for self-preservation.

This obviously does not take into account the possibility that the administration of torture can be quite suggestive by compelling the person to affirm what the police wants to be affirms to clear up their case work though not necessarily solve the crime.

The lack of finesse in such heinous activities which seem to have no limits lead the victim suspects to a point of expiration that is beyond medical help, the perpetrators then attempt to walk away from their crimes with the claim that the suspect committed suicide.

Record the torture as evidence

In fact, if torture should really be a tool for crime resolution, the whole truth extraction process should be available to the crime and punishment system. Complete audio and video recordings must be made available to the defence and the jury, the police who use torture cannot be allowed to present their cases as objective if the means by which they have obtained evidence is so subjective.

Subjective evidence acquisition should suffer wider scrutiny for others to judge not the case in as much as the animals that are paid to police but resort to such abhorrent methods.

No evidence obtained under torture should be admissible in any court anywhere in the world and definitely not in a democracy. We might well take riffraff off the streets and inculcate them in the police if there is no art, science, methodology and reviewable counsel to the work of criminal investigation.

I have no confidence

Unfortunately, I have no confidence in the police hierarchy to pursue to satisfactory conclusion the need to assure the right to life and the preservation of human rights such that civil means are employed to gather evidence.

Neither am I confident that this would be the last death in police custody attributed to suicide when it is almost definitely a torture-induced murder and that impunity would continue as the police lives up to its despicable malevolent moniker of ‘Torture Chambers’.

May Dauda Najeem rest in peace and if there is any justice in this world, those responsible for his death through commission, omission or negligence must be brought to book and made to pay a very heavy price.

Source

[1] The Punch: Controversy trails heir apparent’s death in detention