Is it for lack of competence and/or lack of the required willpower to change the compromised and corrupt status quo in the police by the Inspector General of Police Ibrahim Kpotum Idris that has aided the deterioration of professionalism and discipline in the police?
The deepening spectre of deterioration of professionalism and the breakdown of discipline amongst the operatives and officers of the police force is disturbing.
The compromised performance of police officers in handling the case of alleged poisoning and assassination of a 22-year old undergraduate of the Cross Rivers state University of Technology, Miss Joy Odama by a man identified as Alhaji Usman Adamu in his home in Karimo, a suburb of Abuja, shows that the inspector general of police must sit up and walk the talk.
That the police service commission has watched as the Nigeria police force transforms into cesspool of corruption and bribery shows the need to restructure this oversight agency.
On his part, the IGP doesn’t seem to be ready to lead by example in this case going by his initial missteps and the alleged deliberate attempts to make way for the alleged murderer to get away with this alleged grave offence of deceptively luring a young Nigerian student to her untimely death.
It appears that some funny games are being played out and this is because these police officers believe that in Nigeria the rich and highly connected can always pay their way out and avoid prosecution.
There are too many evil antecedents of cases of open compromise of cases of heinous crime committed by the well- to -do and well-connected Nigerians.
Sadly, Nigerians are so docile that we have refused to stand up and demand comprehensive change in the policing institution.
It’s like a situation of if you can’t beat them you join them.
Will Nigerians allow this little girl’s life to be wasted and for the alleged culprit to attempt to throw money and influence around to circumvent the principle of rule of law which is the cornerstone of our democracy?
For now, it looks increasingly that it is business-as- usual and there’s a groundswell of atmosphere of conspiracy to compromise the matter. Nigerians are simply outraged on social media but have done nothing to demand transparent investigation and prosecution of the accused and his co-conspirators within the top echelons of NPF.
So the emerging compromised investigation carried out by the police in the case of Joy Odama is happening about the same time that another suspected police compromise has manifested with the arrest of Mr. Chukwudi Dumeme Onuamadike -the so-called billionaire kidnapper.
In this case of the so-called Billionaire kidnapper, the police since over the last five years authorized the circulation and publication of another innocent man whom the police told the Nigerian media was the suspected Kidnapping baron ‘Evans’ but in the last one week after the real suspect was arrested it has turned out that the photo that had been circulated is that of an innocent Nigerian based in Angola.
What would have happened?
It is possible that someone within the police hierarchy deliberately circulated the wrong photo so as to allow the real kidnapper to continue to operate provided that he kept paying them some fees for protection from arrest and was picked up after he may have reneged on the agreed terms.
The pattern of betrayal of public trust by the police has become notoriously monstrous.
The sad case of this young Nigerian girl Joy Odama who was suspiciously/allegedly drugged to death by this Alhaji Usman Adamu, the compromised policing style adopted by both the D.P.O of the police in charge and all the other top police officers including the Assistant inspector General of police, has exposed the underbelly of the comprehensive state of corruption and criminal compromise in the Nigeria police.
This open case of criminal collusion and compromise to obstruct justice by the top ranking police officers must be investigated and the indicted officers sanctioned and punished sternly in accordance with the law.
These police officers who actively connived with the alleged murderer of Miss. Odama should be arrested and prosecuted without further delay.
The Nigeria police force must quickly be reorganized and reformed to weed out the thousands of bribe -seeking operatives and officers to save Nigeria from becoming a full blown failed state.
It seems bribery and corruption have become the ‘guardian ghosts’ of the police. This is dangerous for Nigeria.
This is because any society whose policing institution and the officials can easily be bought with money by the rich in conflict with the law, such a society lacks justice and therefore is a failed state.
It is laughable that the IGP has chosen to play the ostrich in this scandal by seemingly disputing the clear results that emanated from the National hospital which conducted forensic autopsy on the remains of the assassinated Miss Joy Odama and came up with far reaching determination that she died of cocaine drug poisoning.
The National hospital in their own words said Odama died of acute cocaine poison.
According to the report, cardiogenic shock secondary to diffusion was attributed as cause of the death of Joy Odama.
“The cause of death was traced to cardiogenic shock secondary to diffusion, myocardial infarction secondary to possible acute cocaine poison,” the autopsy released by the hospital management said.
The Nigerian Police also deceptively said they have been on the trail of Alhaji Usman Adamu, the alleged killer of Odama, and have ordered all its commands across the country to spread its dragnet to track the running suspect.
This is deceitful because the man accused of this grave crime is said to enjoy police protection whilst the police public relations officer was busy dishing out falsehoods.
It’s obvious the police authority is playing out some dubious tricks by ordering another autopsy by the same hospital which found out the exact cause of death.
The order to re-conduct a fresh autopsy as directed by the police boss is illegal and amounts to time wasting strategy and a meaningless money guzzling gambit.
The National hospital which did the first autopsy is an institution of the Federal government just like the police force.
Is the police inspector general a forensic laboratory expert?
What scientific authority does he possess to doubt the far -reaching results as turned in by a national institution?
Who is the ‘sacred cow’ of an Alhaji that even the police hierarchy is frantically trying to protect amidst mounting allegations of his involvement in the death of Joy Odama?
Who really is this man Alhaji Usman Adamu that is bigger than the law enforcement agencies?
Why are the National human rights commission (NHRC); the office of the wife of the President; the women’s Affairs Ministry and the Federal Attorney General not interested in this matter?
*Emmanuel Onwubiko is Head of HUMAN RIGHTS WRITERS ASSOCIATION (HURIWA) and blogs @www.emmanuelonwubiko.com, www .huriwa@blogspot.com.
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