The brutal murder of Kano DPO

By Olusegun Adeniyi

In a nation where hardly a single day passes without tragedy, it can be overwhelming for public officials to respond to all the bad news.

From a vehicular accident claiming no fewer than 22 athletes returning from a national sports festival to almost 200 fatalities and dozens of others believed to have been swept away by devastating floods, it has been a period of mourning in Nigeria.

Even at that, the official silence to the trending video of how CSP Baba Ali Muhammad was brutally murdered by street urchins is very telling on the value we place on the life of those we expect to protect us.

Before I proceed, let me state that crime fighting is a risky enterprise all over the world.

For instance, according to the website of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), 47 law enforcement officers were murdered in the first eight months of last year.

“Firearms were used in 76.6 percent of the felonious deaths occurring in 2024.

Among officers killed with firearms, four are confirmed to have been wearing body armour,” the FBI report reveals.

“The leading circumstances surrounding the officers’ felonious deaths were related to investigative/enforcement (16), unprovoked attacks (8), and ambushes (entrapment/premeditation) (6).”

However, what is different in the case of Nigeria is the growing rate at which criminals are targeting our law enforcement officers for extermination without fear.

Not to mention the way we treat our policemen—alive or dead. That is not the case elsewhere.

In March this year, President Donald Trump called for a mandatory death penalty for anyone convicted of killing an American law enforcement officer.

After signing an executive order that would make the death penalty mandatory in such cases, Trump called on Congress to ensure it becomes a permanent law.

He also honoured the widow of NYPD Officer, Jonathan Diller, who was shot during a traffic stop in March 2023.

Meanwhile, I am yet to see a presidential response to the mob killing of the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) for Rano in Kano State.

I once referenced the response by Vivek Tulja, a satellite communication expert, to a question on why criminals, including members of the Mafia, avoid killing policemen unless they are cornered.

“If you happen to kill a cop, you are best off using the last bullet in your magazine on yourself,” Tulja concluded.

That appears not be the case in Nigeria given how the Rano DPO was executed in a most brutal manner by a mob not even afraid to record their own bestial action.

In recent days, I have had revealing exchanges with Mr Tunji Alapini, a retired Assistant Inspector General of Police, regarding this tragedy.

“That an officer of the law left his home for the office and ended up being gruesomely murdered in a ‘sane’ society is beyond imagination,” said Alapini who admitted shedding tears after watching the gory video.

“I am not in full picture of the incident that made those criminals believe they have a right to take the life of an officer on legitimate duty, but from the aftermath of the Police Interim Investigation report, the mob massacred the DPO because a suspect allegedly died in the cell at his station.”

While advocating that the culprits (most of whom have been arrested by the police) be made to bear “the full consequences of their action,” Alapini also expressed concern about the lack of outrage from critical stakeholders in our country on the tragic incident.

“While the Police cried out about what happened to the unfortunate officer, there was a deafening silence from the Governor of Kano State, traditional rulers, National Assembly members etc.

It is almost as if the lives of our police and military personnel don’t matter. And that is both concerning and saddening.”

I share Alapini’s sentiment. As the principal custodian of peace, order and security in a constitutional democracy, no institution is arguably more important than the police.

But so abused is this law enforcement authority in Nigeria that both the government and society seem not to care about their personnel.

Yet, given the strategic relationship between the well-being of the police and the security of citizens, we neglect this critical institution to our own peril.

I have in the past recounted the October 2011 statement by a police officer’s wife at the Obalende barracks in Lagos which revealed the indignities to which their families had been exposed.

It may be worth repeating at a time like this. “We have been suffering in silence. These barracks are like a refugee camp. We have no toilet facilities, no pipe-borne water and no electricity, and we are now being threatened by floods and reptiles,” the woman told the visiting Police Affairs Minister, Caleb Olubolade.

“We live a little above animals. We are like sub-human beings here. This is a place of death; the mosquitoes here don’t surrender to insecticides…”

How do we expect the personnel of a Police force whose families live like ‘sub-human beings’ to perform optimally? Yes, I have written several columns on the excesses of the police, but we should also be fair.

If the life of a divisional police officer could be taken by a mob in such a gruesome manner and authorities in Nigeria move on as if nothing happened, what justification do we have to hold them accountable when they misbehave?

Alapini suggests that the Rano Police station be named after the deceased CSP. I agree.

But I also hope those in authorities can understand that the manner in whichthe life of the Rano DPO was taken is a direct assault on social order and a grave threat to the foundation of any functioning society.

And there must be severe consequences, if only to serve as a deterrence to others that when you kill a policeman in Nigeria, you are digging your own grave. It must never happen again!

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