PRESS RELEASE UNIPORT STUDENTS KILLING: UNTRAMMELLED BARBARISM!

The Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) condemns, without any
reservation, the gruesome killing of four University of Port-Harcourt
(UNIPORT) students in Aluu community of Rivers State. This, coming so
soon after another brutal cutting down of scores of students in Mubi,
Adamawa state, is one killing too many!
Unconfirmed preliminary reports had it that the students- Ugonna,
IIyod, Tekana, Chidiaka- were embroiled in an argument with a man from
the community over money owed. Rather than settling amicably, the man
in question called a local vigilante group that came instantly. The
students, first stripped naked, were beaten into pulp before being
burnt to death. The footage of this act of untrammeled barbarism
reveals a sad commentary that in the current Nigerian state: death is
cheap and ubiquitous! It also reveals that studentship in Nigeria is
fraught with inherent danger because of the near absence of governance
in the Country.
The question is: where was the Nigeria Police while this fire of
primitive justice raged? Indeed, the Police was nowhere! The defective
organizational, crime-fighting thrust of the Nigeria Police is seen in
its reactivity rather than pro-activity. Globally, Policing is first
and foremost about maintenance of law and order. The Prevention of
crime comes to the fore in the discharge of this responsibility by the
Police. This is why the New-York Police Department (NYPD) officers are
seen patrolling the streets in all the five boroughs of the City of
New-York. In that way, crime is detected and prevented so that
societal equilibrium is not unduly discomfited. But the Nigeria Police
is hamstrung to do this efficiently because a considerable number of
its insufficient personnel is devoted for the protection of the
chieftains of the ruling PDP. Truly, arrests have been made in
connection with this heinous crime, we insist that there should be a
paradigm shift in the organizational strategy of the Nigeria Police to
Crime prevention.
The emergence and growing number of vigilante groups in the Nigerian
communities is an attestation to the waning public confidence in the
service delivery of the Nigeria Police. First, the spontaneity of the
response to distress calls is still a sore point in the performance of
the Police. Second, the delay or absence of prosecution and conviction
makes for eroded public confidence in the Police. There was the case
of a Man, arrested by the Police with evidential trappings of an Armed
robber that later found his way to as an elected senator of the
Federal republic of Nigeria, having escaped prosecution and
conviction. This may partly explain, but not justifiable reason, why
communities now mete out jungle justice to criminals or perceived
criminals. As a Party, we believe that all these institutional foibles
of the Nigeria Police are not enough for communities to resort to
self-help. In this vein, the operation of vigilante groups should
henceforth be structured to work in tandem with the Nigeria Police.
The kernel of the operation should be to effect arrest of accused
criminals and turn over to the Police!
As a Party, we commiserate with the Parents, siblings, family members
and friends of the deceased. Indeed, the gory pictures of the gruesome
killings evoke feelings of anguish. The murderous violence on these
young Nigerians should therefore elicit a collective desire in us as
Nigerians for a safer, tranquil and better-governed polity.
God bless Nigeria.

Rotimi Fashakin (Engr.)
National Publicity Secretary, CPC.
(Tuesday, October 09, 2012).

via Nasir El'Rufai