Angry policemen

Sometimes, I marvel at the things I hear from the lips of certain people in this country. You wonder if whatever mettle they were made of actually was ever designed to feature in the existence of the living. Its around here you find people give and/or ask for bribe and call it PR (Public Relations); its around here you find naval ratings use horsewhips on civilians and call it discipline; its around here you find people, even the poor, take what does not belong to them and call it partaking of the national cake.

Just yesterday, my mum told me that on her way to a state out of Lagos, some policemen demanded that they stopped but the driver refused to. As a result, they started shooting at the bus but fortunately, nobody got hurt. However, what dazzled me most was what the policemen did after that. They collected the money for the bullets they wasted from the driver, after he stopped, and then released the bomb shell...

...it was because the DPO and one policeman in the state was killed yesterday.

Now the question I asked simultaneously was to find out it the reason they gave was directed at why they shot or why they collected the money for the bullet they wasted.

Who told them to shoot at innocent civilians? In a society which is concerned about the welfare of its citizens, what they would have done was to engage the vehicle that refused to heed their call in a hot pursuit. So many innocent lives have been lost as a result of this irrational and highly unprofessional behaviour of the ' men in black'. I also stand to be corrected but I believe that we are not getting the right response from those in authority. So many of the dastardly acts have gone unpunished.

Why should I be on bike and spot poliemen and be afraid? Afraid they might stop you to check your bag and then ask for the receipt of some very useless thing. Afraid their might be an accidental discharge and you become the victim. Afraid that for whatever reason they might have, you are bundled into the waiting van and driven off to some unknown location. If driven off to the prison (where you might not get any trial for the next 5-10 years and your family has no knowledge of your whereabout) you might be lucky as opposed to those I heard might be driven off to unknown destination where they could be sold to ... you can imagine the details.

We want our leaders to help hold those who have mangled and destroyed the lives of innocent people to ransom and ensure they pay for their misdemeanours.
Nigeria will flourish again...