Police Brutality: After Victor David, Who’s Next?


By UbongAbasi Ise

Police belongs to the league of necessary evils that civilization could not progress without. Since policing is the lifeblood of governance, and without it no government could be effective, we allow reckless brutality and extreme cruelty roughly known by mankind to thrive inexorably on the back of this security outfit. Out of pure motive to safeguard our societies and civilizations from sliding into chaos and anarchy, or descend to Thomas Hobbes’s original state of nature in Leviathan where life was solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short, we have no choice other than to tolerate both weaknesses and excesses of the police institution.  But where do we go from here?

In Nigeria, despite the unending timeline of all manner of police brutalities on the hapless, poor civilians, no sane mind could ever reckon that the institution be scrapped. Instead there have been several efforts, both vapid and concerted, to reform and sanitize it, and unfortunately, some elements are always there to sustain the bad name and wrongful perception of the Nigerian Police Force. Sometimes it makes one wonder if some policemen even have iota of respect to their fiduciary duty of having to look out for the safety of lives and properties as well as the extant laws of the land that they were drafted to protect. Police brutality happens almost every day. February 17, 2018 was the day Mr. Victor Otu David reportedly became a victim of police arbitrariness, and he is now living with permanent disability. Tomorrow, it could be me; it could be you, or anyone else.

When Victor David, 36, an indigene of Okopedi in Okobo local government area went out on that fateful day to his normal business at Okopedi motor-park, just as other days, having waved bye to his beloved pregnant wife and his daughter, he thought the day would end well, and he hoped to return home to his family as usual. But quite unfortunately, he was treated to a buffet of police recklessness which thenceforth rendered him disabled, perhaps, for the rest of his life.


David could have been leery about the Nigerian police as it has become unwritten code for the civilians to do so and stay out of trouble given the age-long experience of some police elements that would, out of frustration, be resorting to calling the innocent dog a thief in order to smash its head. But Victor David threw all cautions to the air and joined other concerned, risk-taking individuals at the scene of arrest at Esit’s compound along Wisdom Road in Okopedi where suspects of banditry were said to have been dwelling.

Victor David told our correspondent that he was amongst the onlookers when police raided Esit’s compound on two occasions on February 17, 2018. First they arrested a suspect simply known as Kufre, and he (Victor David) was asked by the police to assist them in unlocking the gate to the compound, after which he returned to his place of work. At about 3.00 pm, David said he was greeted with the news that the police had returned to the area having recovered the stolen properties. With this news, he went once again to the scene with his workplace colleague, Mr. Emana Attah.  On reaching there to witness the unfolding event, he found DPO Joseph Udourioh with the community leaders, amongst whom were Chief Imo Efiong, the village head, and Mr. Emman Johnson, the Okopedi motor park chairman.

What the DPO did, according to Victor David, was to cock AK47 rifle and shot into the air following his failed attempts with other guns on the first two attempts, after which he ordered David and his colleague, Mr. Emana Attah, into the police Hilux, and they were taken to the Okobo police station.

David recounted how DPO Udourioh interrogated him on arriving the station in order to find out if he knew the identity of the suspects of the crime. After he stated severally that he had no idea of who the suspects were, Victor David said the DPO then took him to behind his office, and shot at his shin after missing previous targets.

In David’s words, “We entered the Hilux and they took us to the police station; we were left at the counter. Later on, the DPO sent for me, and I was taken to somewhere behind his office where other two policemen were standing. Then the DPO asked me: “were you the one that opened the gate for my men?” and I said yes. He then asked me to tell the truth if I know those boys that stole those properties. I said No, and that I only came to witness the incident. At that point the DPO fired the gun close to my left leg. He shot the second time, and the third time, he shot at my right leg.”

Having, probably, came to realize that Mr. Victor David has no hand in the crime, DPO Joseph Udourioh took the victim in the police van to a hospital in Iquita in Oron but the management turned down admitting Mr. David into their facility, and he was later admitted into the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital in Uyo by the time he lost consciousness apparently due to hemorrhaging. 

After more than a week in the Emergency Unit, the victim was later taken to Orthopedic Unit at the same hospital where a six inches bone at the affected region was severed and iron fixed to help support the ligaments. He also recalled how his wife, who was heavily pregnant at the time, delivered of a baby boy at the same hospital and the family condition became aggravated.

The victim had admitted to our correspondent that DPO Joseph Udourioh had borne his hospital bill at the initial stage, but has since abandoned him to face his own predicament.
Meanwhile the Akwa Ibom State Human Rights Community in a petition to the state Commissioner of Police, dated February 7, 2019, and signed by its coordinator, Barr. Clifford Thomas, has noted how the DPO apologized to the victim but confessed that he had killed several persons in the like manner and nothing happened.

The human rights body has called on the Akwa Ibom State Commissioner of Police to launch a full scale investigation into the case with a view to getting to the bottom of the matter.

In his interaction with The Sensor, Mr. Victor David said he could no longer cater for the wellbeing of his young family which consists of a wife, a nine-month son and a daughter of about 2 years of age.

He said all the money he ever made while working at Okopedi Motor Park before the incident occurred has gone for treatment of a nagging leg problem, and he is distressfully calling for the state authority to come to his aid.

Having felt abandoned by DPO Udourioh, Mr. David called on the attention of the Akwa Ibom State Governor, Mr. Udom Emmanuel; the Speaker of the House of Akwa Ibom State House of Assembly, Barr. Onofiok Luke; His Royal Majesty, E.O. Isemin (Ahya Oro VII); the youth of Okobo; and Akwa Ibom State Human Rights Community to come to his remedy as the ordeal has taken a huge toll on his health and the wellbeing of his family.

The spates of high-profiled brutalities perpetrated by men of the Force really need urgent attention. In March in Nyanya, Abuja, a policeman allegedly beat up and killed Ogar Jombo, a two-star officer of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), for violating traffic rules, and this happened in the very eyes of the deceased wife and children. Now in April, Olalekan Ogunyemi, a  police inspector, who was attached to the Anti-Cultism Unit of the Lagos State Police Command, shot dead 36-year-old Kolade Johnson during a raid around a football viewing centre in the Onipetesi area of the state. It feels so bad to see how the citizens have been subjected to nefarious mishandling. The absurdity called police brutality in recent times aptly called all stakeholders in the security matters to sit down and review our policing history and put forward the need, as a nation, to retrace our steps to where things started to go wrong as the country is drifting towards the perplexing doldrums of insecurity.


Yes! I am UbongAbasi Ise. For Comment, send SMS to 08189914609 | ubongabasiise@gmail.com



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