Oluniyi D.Ajao

It is quite routine for the Police to arrest suspected armed robbers in Nigeria, and parade them on national TV. Do not bother asking what happens if the suspects turn out to be innocent after they had their day in court. The Nigeria Police does not care about human rights. They are the law.

Something I consider very hilarious happened in Kwara State yesterday. Vanguard, a leading Nigerian daily newspaper, reports a ram was “arrested” by the Police:

Suspected ram paraded by Nigeria Police

The goat “suspect” is being detained over an alleged attempt to snatch a Mazda car. The mysterious goat, according to the Police Public Relations Officer, Mr. Tunde Mohammed, while briefing bewildered journalists at the Force headquarters, is an armed robber who attempted to snatch the said car, Wednesday night, and later transformed into the goat in a bid to escape arrest.

He explained that men of a vigilance group in Anifowose Ipata/Oloje areas of the state capital had chased two armed robbery suspects who wanted to demobilise the Mazda car with the intention of stealing it, and

“while one of them escaped, the other was about to be apprehended by the team when he turned his back on the wall and turned to this goat. They quickly grabbed the goat and here it is.’’ Mohammed said.

Is this how low the Police in Nigeria has descend? Extorting money from commercial drivers is bad enough but parading a ram as a car robber is not only ridiculous, but a reflection of the power calibre of people recruited into the Police. From a BBC News report:

Innocent Chukwuma of the justice reform group the Cleen Foundation, told the BBC that many Nigerian police officers were poorly educated.

“There are officers who don’t even have a secondary school education, and the police have a big job to do in finding these people and getting rid of them.”

This is very shameful.

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