The Brigandage Called Arrest in Imo

At a time the Nigerian Police is mouthing reforms, it is pertinent to note that the force is digging back on the promise of having a force that Nigerians can relate with.
The brigandage that took place at the St’ Peters Anglican Church, Nkwerre, Imo State on Sunday has left a sour taste in the mouth.
The video and images of the arrest in circulation all bear semblance of lawlessness and disorder. It is unfortunate that such horrendous act came from the hands of those paid with taxpayers’ funds to maintain law and order and generally give Nigerians a secured society.
Where else could citizens be more secured than in the house of God? Masked men, wielding guns barging into a worship centre to arrest a man whose mother had just been buried and was having outing service is definitely a hubris.
This is not about the reason for the arrest of Uche Nwosu. For all we know, the issues bordering on alleged bad governance under the Rochas Okorocha administration of which Nwosu was a major player are well known. And no one who desires good governance, accountability and real development would stand in the way of calling those who played any sordid role in that to come to reckoning.
However, if the police itself institutionalizes brigandage in its modus operandi, let it be known that it stands to reap ugly rewards in the end.
Last month, officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission in similar manner, stormed a hotel in Abeokuta, Ogun State ostensibly to arrest some suspected Internet fraudsters. In the process, they created panic and subjected other hotel guests who were on their legitimate businesses to inhuman treatments and undue anxieties. There are many other instances that fly in the face of reason and logic.
Before the Gestapo-styled arrest or abduction in the church on Sunday, what was the form of engagement the police had with Nwosu? Was there a formal police invitation? When it became necessary for the police to hunt for him, was there a warrant of arrest? Did the arrest of an unarmed man necessitate such violence as captured in the video in circulation?
It is amazing that the Police command in Imo came out to confirm that what happened in the church was an arrest. Was this the order given to the men by the Commissioner of Police?
The Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba cannot look the other way over this matter. This is another sad commentary on the country’s security system and one of the reasons the citizens have lost faith.
The ruins caused by the protest against police brutality are still fresh everywhere across the country. While opinions are very rife that the ENDSARS protesters over-acted their script, acts such as this keep telling the global community that the country is unsafe for her citizens.
Gansterism in the name of police arrest should be discouraged if the dream of an acceptable culture of policing would be institutionalized in Nigeria.