THE POLICE AND THE OZUBULU MASSACRE
In recent history, the Nigeria Police has proven to be a weak force in terms of professionalism and the capacity of the personnel to effectively combat crimes and enforce the law.
Few years back, the police, due to the archaic policing standards, foisted on the nation one of the most devastating threats to national security and indeed the corporate existence of Nigeria - Boko Haram terrorism.
It was precisely the extra-legal execution of a hitherto unknown quantity called Sheikh Mohamed Yusuf whilst in police detention sometimes in the year 2009 under then President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua that the almost five –year- old bombing campaign started.
The extrajudicial killing of the ideological founder of the deadly Islamic sect precipitated the launching of full blown violent armed attacks against public and private institutions by the Islamic extremists which has so far led to the death of over 20,000 innocent Nigerians.
Apart from cases of extra-legal executions of suspects in the custody of the police which are documented by the office of the United Nations High Commis- sioner on human rights, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch amongst others, the Nigeria police lacks most of the basic skills, facilities and 21st century compliant trainings necessary for proper, effective, efficient and comprehensive policing to comply with global best practices.
To compound the institutional inefficiency of the police is the clear lack of up-to -date enabling laws on the strategic engagement of the police in modern day crime prevention, detection and enforcement of laws.
Perhaps, the backwardness of the police in effectively combating criminality was displayed clearly in the attack at the Catholic Church in Ozubulu, Anambra State, in which the police were caught napping and scampering for excuses. This is because the police arrived at the scene of the shooting clearly one hour after the shooters who killed dozens of Nigerians had disappeared.
To even add salt to injury, the police made no attempt to deploy modern techniques to secure the crimes scene or to collect critical ingredients of forensic evidence from the scene of the crime.