Ede Killings: Need For IGP To Probe Police Unprofessional Conduct By Sola Akinpelu

Nigeria Police Force is a legally established institution with clear professional ethics and moral imperatives towards providing adequate security and protecting lives and property, which is why its operation should be hinged on an adequate internal regulation where the personnel could be put on a routine check due to the state instrument of violence under their control.

Against the backdrop of the foregoing, it’s saddening, distateful and unethical to have learnt that the Nigerian Police Force under the control of the Inspector General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba is denigrating the ethical conduct of the institution by treating criminality with kid glove which is capable of aggravating tension in the polity.

One will recall that one CSP Omoyele Isaac Adekunle, a leader of the disbanded Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) had been accused of killing two persons in Ede township where the Osun State Governor-Elect hails from; the situation which further led to an accompanying destruction of property, pandemonium and communal clash.

This gross misconduct on the part of Superintendent Omoyele and his team is to the best knowledge of the Nigerian Police Force which was why the Osun State Commissioner of Police, Olawale Olokode disowned the operation of Omoyele-led team that was carried out unofficially and thereby, disbanded the CP surveillance squad headed by the alleged officer as widely reported by prominent Nigerian Newspapers such as Punch, Sun and Daily Post.

It’s however, to the utter surprise and dismay to note that depsite this blatant unprofessional conduct and the odious criminality perpetrated by the officer in question as well as the priviness of the Nigerian Police Force to the misconduct, the police IG went ahead to post the same Omoyele as the Chief Security Officer to the Governor-Elect, Senator Ademola Adeleke according to a letter dated 3rd August, 2022 titled Posting/Transfer SPOs and signed by the Assistant IG, Hafiz M. Inuwa.

As a matter of fact, this new development poses a question of morality to the Nigerian Police Force on whether it’s harboring criminality in their institutional system and by extension, promoting immodest and unruly behaviors of its personnel, because reposting an officer who is supposed to be under intense prosecution for an alleged criminality, abuse of office as well as insubordination, is nothing but a shameful, unreasonable and unethical act on the part of the institution.

In a saner clime where security outfits like that of NPF are run on the ideals of integrity, professionalism, discipline and principles, the likes of Omoyele would have been used as a scapegoat in a way to serve as a deterrent to other unguided officers so as to maintain the sanctity and reputation of the institution.

It now beats one’s imagination and questions the modicum of common sense that instead of the IG to take a decisive measure to bring the alleged officer to the book of justice, he has then empowered him the more with his new deployment in a bid to further unleash terror on the innocent civilians which by implication, could lead to full-blown criminality, sociopolitical instability, and civil unrest.

In the final analysis, the Inspector General of Police is hereby called to take the bull by its horn, by reversing the shameful deployment of the errant officer so as to pave way for an effective prosecution of his unprofessional and immodest act with a view to giving justice to the victims’ families as well as protecting the image of the Nigeria Police Force.

Sola Akinpelu
Ward 04,
Osogbo Local Government,
Osun State.

Disclaimer: This piece represents the opinion of the Writer not that of CityMirrorNews