Bayelsa policemen kill 20-year-old for criticising bribery at checkpoint
Written by  Mike Odiegwu

Forlorn and depressed, Mrs. Grace Victor stared at the sky. The woman, who hails from Rivers State, has yet to come to term with the reality that the killing of her son, Mr. Victor Emmanuel, on Sunday by some trigger-happy policemen is not a scene from a tragic film.

She said witnessing how her son was ruthlessly murdered and her inability to protect him was a traumatic experience that would live with her for the rest of her life.

"I saw them shoot my son; no mercy at all, they shot him brutally. As he fell while they were shooting him, the tallest of them still continued shooting him on the ground," she said.

She told PUNCH METRO that her son was killed on Sunday on her way back from church. She said Emmanuel died with a copy of the Holy Bible on his hand.

"My son went to church with me. After the close of church, I came out and boarded a commercial motorcycle and, not far from where I took off, I heard gunshots. I was scared and told the motorcycle operator to stop for us to take cover.

"All of a sudden I saw my son running and being chased by the police. Police vans were parked on both sides of the road. And, when I discovered that it was my son they were chasing and about shooting, I ran towards one of the policemen close to one of the vans.

"I told him the person they were chasing was my son. I told him he was a Christian and that he just came out of the church. By this time they were cocking their guns. By the time the policeman I approached signalled his colleagues to stop, they were already shooting at my son.

"My son was holding a Bible when he was shot. I rushed, as a mother, to go and attend to him but they threatened that if I didn’t move back they would shoot me too. They made me move back. I did not see any of the policemen with any stain of blood then. But they just picked his Bible and drove off. It was another police vehicle that came and picked him."

What could have moved the police to commit such dastardly act? PUNCH METRO gathered from sources at the scene that the late Emmanuel was displeased at the way the police were allegedly harassing and extorting money from commercial motorcyclists. He was said to have made a demeaning statement that infuriated the policemen.

Particularly, Emmanuel had reportedly condemned the attitude of the policemen, saying they only exercised their power on helpless motorcyclists and wondered why they even chose Sunday to extort money from people.

Sources said it was the statement that made the angry policemen to chase and kill him.

http://news.punchng.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=2012:bayelsa-policemen-kill-20-year-old-for-criticising-bribery-at-checkpoint&Itemid=570

There is no crime section to post this

I will continue to say it, it's unbridled corruption and a breakdown of law and order (as exemplified by the inept Police) that will bring Nigeria to its knees.

Cursed profession

This things just keep happening and nothing is being done by nobody.

You pick up a bunch of idi'ots, dont train them properly on the law they are suppose to be enforcing, give them heavy arms, underpay them and set them loose on Nigerians, what did we think would be the outcome?!


I remember one night when my dads car broke down a few k/m's from our house, and my dad came home and got myself and some other dude who was staying with us to come help push the car home. Half way home, a friend of his saw us pushing the car and decided to give us a tow home. just a few feet to our street, we ran into a checkpoint (this checkpoint has been there since forever and you would think they would have recognized us as residents in the neighbourhood). Thats how they stopped us at about 9:30 in the evening, and asked us for a tow-permit. Long story short, my mum who is a lawyer was pissed and trying to tell the officer that he was wrong and he just pulled up his rifle, aimed at her face (standing just a few meters from her) and had barely lifted the barrel just slightly above her head when two shots rang out. My dear!! That was my lesson in life never to f'ucks with the police, That check-point dis-banded immediately because after the shots rang out, the officer incharge ran up, took away the other officers fire arm and loaded him into their pick-up and they drove off.

The fear of Nigerian police is the beginning of wisdom, just saying

I have always thought of the day I will stand up to police extortion but with this I shelve the idea.

That was a brave man killed by ruthless armed robbers called the nigerian police.

i am getting tired of everything,

seriously, i am giving up on nigeria,

i wonder if all our posts and pleas on nairaland change anything,

i am rily rily tired,

Now an everyday thing, Its so sad

Things like this only happen in a rogue state. Nigeria is a rogue state.

I hate the police. When I'm a soldier, I'll deal ruthlessly with any of them who dares cross my path. Useless dickheads!

Imanuelle:

i am getting tired of everything,

seriously,  i am giving up on nigeria,

i wonder if all our posts and pleas on nairaland change anything,

i am rily rily tired,

I feel you. Sad part is that since the Nigeria Police is centralized, as in one headquarters in Abuja controls the police department in the entire nation, it will be difficult for the headquarters to conduct investigations for all the corruption and unwarranted killing that are happening in all the thirty six states.

The states are powerless as to how to curb this corruption. Only God will help us.

,

I remember the trigger happy bloodshed that happened to police and army personnel in lagos a few months back.
I think Nigerian Police never learns.
Whatever a man sows that he will surely reap.
May the dead guy's soul RIP.

Bayelsa is not yet ripe for their Tahrir moment?

There are several un-documented cases of police brutality and violence on citizens. extra-judicial killings that become public knowledge eventually hit the court and a Police Tribunal is setup to handle a Civil Crime - only in Nigeria. just as a Crime punishable and provided for by the Constitution of Nigeria is handled by a Sharia court. Justice is truly blind

Imanuelle:

i am getting tired of everything,

seriously, i am giving up on nigeria,

i wonder if all our posts and pleas on nairaland change anything,

i am rily rily tired,

^^same here!

Much as we all hate d nigerian police,but d story sounds too simplistic to me;d boy reprimands dem& dey chase him,kil him& colect his bible;d police may stil av bn @fault but I think d story doesn't add up& dat it has bn twisted to serve unknown purposes.
I maybe wrong but dis is my gut feeling

God will help Us

question:

I remember the trigger happy bloodshed that happened to police and army personnel in lagos a few months back.
I think Nigerian Police never learns.
Whatever a man sows that he will surely reap.
May the dead guy's soul RIP.

That is why i'm always happy whenever the army teach those iddiots the lesson of their lives.Imagine taking a human life as if it means nothing to them.

The Nigeria police is the most Hated institution in Nigeria.

True or False?

I say True

doctokwus:

Much as we all hate d nigerian police,but d story sounds too simplistic to me;d boy reprimands dem& dey chase him,kil him& colect his bible;d police may stil av bn @fault but I think d story doesn't add up& dat it has bn twisted to serve unknown purposes.
I maybe wrong but dis is my gut feeling

I can't believe you just wrote this crap ! Story twisted or not,the police has no right to kill when it's not justified.

have u ever wandered why Most Police Men, Die Mysteriously?
Curses are jst too much on der Heads,

Olodostein:

The Nigeria police is the most Hated institution in Nigeria.

True or False?

I say True

Any public institution that starts with N.
NPF, NNPC, NEPA, NPA, NDDC,etc

My appeal to any sane human in Naija,never never confront an armed man.(Police in particular)

Most of the times when I travel on the highway when I get to their check point I just smile at them and that does the magic for me.

I delibrately have some 100naira bills on my shirt pocket and just give to any of them that trys to park me,even with your car papers complete they would still look for 5 that looks like S.

redsun:

That was a brave man killed by ruthless armed robbers called the nigerian police.

Spot on. I wonder what the function of the police in Nigeria. To protect or to execute the innocent

This behaviour of police is a disgrace. I am presuming nothing will be done about it ever.

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How are the policemen in Nigeria recruited? We must ask ourselves this question. In developed countries they taste their mental alertness and state. We don't recruit psycho as cops. Until we start with their mode of recruitment we'll still experience such incident by trigger happy cops

g

@doctokwus, you sounded as if your dad was a policeman that murdered that kid. You sounded like an apologist. let's assume that the boy slapped one of the policemen or even stole their bible, was that a commensurate punishment in your opinion? Killing a 20 years old in broad daylight and in the presence of her mother. I only hope that the woman is able to shake off the truma with time. But your post really saddens my heart even more than the bullets that killed that kid. Remember, what goes around comes around!

Why are we just talking? Is there no way to take this up and get justice? Even if we eventually don't get justice, is there a way to make more noise about it?

Just read the Punch article and it seems the CLO have taken it up. But I think more noise should be made about it as it seems that's what gets the job done in Naija these days.

However, the Civil Liberties Organisation has condemned the brutal killing, saying there was no justification in extra-judicial murder. The state Secretary, CLO, Mr. Morris Alagoa, asked the Inspector-General of Police, Hafiz Ringim, to call policemen attached to the state command to order, adding that the killing of Emmanuel was one death too many.

He said, "No matter what happened, even though the police statement is saying the boy was smoking hemp and even tried to fight them when they challenged him, can a 25-year old young man overpower all those policemen that chased him? Was it proper to shoot at an unarmed Nigerian? Have the police the right to pass judgment and also sentence to death?

"The CLO is calling on the Commissioner of Police in the state to, as a matter of urgency, institute an investigation team to dig into this matter and take disciplinary action against the policemen who carried out this dastardly act of killing a Nigerian with impunity. Law- abiding Nigerians cannot continue to see themselves being killed by the very policemen meant to safe guard their security.

"We want these extra-judicial killings to stop and, perpetrators made to face the law of the land. In this wise, the CLO is calling on all well-meaning Nigerians to rise up, not only condemn the negative act, but to assist in fighting for justice. The IG should call his men in Bayelsa State to order and ensure that those found culpable are punished without delay."