Penultimate week, precisely on the night of Saturday, 23rd April 2022, three indigenes of Kajola in Odogbo Local Government Area (LGA) of Ondo State reportedly feared dead at a Police Checkpoint, shortly after they were fatally knocked down by a ‘hit-and-run’ driver.

According to reports, the deceased persons, who included the village head of the said area, were prior to the accident riding on a motorcycle, on the Lagos-Ore Expressway in Ondo State.

It’s noteworthy that the residents of the area had accused the police of being responsible for the untimely death of the three, owing to their illicit activities on the road, on a daily basis.

Reacting to the accusation, the Ondo State Police Command, on Sunday, 24th April 2022, stated that its officers were not responsible for the death of the three accident victims.

The command’s Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Funmilayo Odunlami, while refuting the allegation, claimed that the victims’ death was not due to police recklessness but flouting of traffic rules.

She disclosed that the deceased used a motorcycle without a headlamp, adding they were riding on a one-way route, thus leading to a head-on collision with a speeding vehicle.

“The death of the victims was not caused by the police, as is being circulated. They died as a result of flouting traffic rules. The deceased were riding a motorcycle with no headlamp on a one-way route and had a head-on collision with a speeding vehicle. They have died now and are not able to tell the story.

“Youths should find a way of registering their grievances. Lynching police officers or burning down police station at every slightest opportunity is barbaric.

“Police are there to protect them, while there are several emergency numbers through which they can report issues to the police headquarters. They should not take laws into their hands.” The Police spokesperson said.

The youth in the area had accused the police of extortion at a checkpoint in the area, which they described as illegal. A witness, Funmi Olowogboye told newsmen that the accident occurred when the police officers were trying to extort the victims while a speeding vehicle trying to escape arrest crushed them to death.

The youths had, in their large numbers, swooped on Kajola Police Station with the corpses of the deceased, and attempted to burn it down.

It took the combined efforts of police operatives and other security agents to prevent the youth from lynching the personnel and razing the police station as well as restoring normalcy in the area.

It could be that the Commissioner of Police in the State, Oyeyemi Oyediran had, upon assumption of duty, ordered the immediate dismantling of all illegal roadblocks and checkpoints on the Ore-Benin Expressway.

Whatever that might have caused the accident, the truth remains that the various checkpoints of the point, in the guise of protecting the lives property of the citizens, end up constituting more nuisance than good.

On several occasions, the Inspector General of Police (IGP) had ordered dismantling of every illicit checkpoint along Nigeria’s major roads, yet till date, the ugly situation remains the same.

It’s no longer news that any IGP that comes on board wouldn’t hesitate to issue a directive as regards illegal checkpoints on the expressways across the federation, but it seems the order keeps falling on deaf ears.

This is the reason many concerned Nigerians have been compelled to believe that the various police authorities or bosses in the country have their own share of the tolls being collected at the checkpoints situated at their respective jurisdictions.

A birthday celebration in Lagos last Sunday turned sour when trigger-happy police security who was hired to guard the venue decided to shoot some shots into the air for the entertainment of the guests.

According to the eyewitness report; the policeman was not able to properly position the gun but rather shot into the crowd killing three persons on the spot and leaving numerous others who scampered for their lives severely wounded. 

Some things cannot just be justified. How can you justify a policeman shooting into the air as he claimed or opening fire with an Ak47 rifle fully loaded in a crowded public place in the name of cheering on the crowd? 

This is a common occurrence in Nigeria, policemen shoot into the air at parties and guests will cheer them on but this police guy and the guests at the party on Sunday became quite unfortunate. 

In an act like this, the offender (the shooter) will be charged with murder, it does not matter that it was an accidental discharge or he had no intention (the mensrea) of shooting directly at the victims or that he only wants to release some shots into the air. This is usually an offense of strict liability. 

A trained policeman armed with rifles is presumed to know that the aftermath of a shooting in a crowded public place is getting some people shot. There’s no reasonable justification whatsoever for those shots unless the police agency now permits its officers to shoot into the air for celebratory purposes. 

For clarifications purposes of what the term murder or unlawful homicide really means under the Nigeria law; i will replicate its definition as provided in the criminal code act. 

Section 315 of the act hereby provides (Unlawful homicide); 

Any person who unlawfully kills another is guilty of an offense which is called murder or manslaughter, according to the circumstances of the case.

Section 316 went on to state the circumstances where murder or unlawful homicide will be said to have taken place, thus:

316: Except as hereinafter set forth, a person who unlawfully kills another under any of the following circumstances, that is to say?

(1) if the offender intends to cause the death of the person killed, or that of some other person;

(2) if the offender intends to do to the person killed or to some other person some grievous harm;

(3) if death is caused by means of an act done in the prosecution of an unlawful purpose, which act is of such a nature as to be likely to endanger human life;

(4) if the offender intends to do grievous harm to some person for the purpose of facilitating the commission of an offence which is such that the offender may be arrested without warrant, or for the purpose of facilitating the flight of an offender who has committed or attempted to commit any such offence;

(5) if death is caused by administering any stupefying or overpowering things for either of the purposes last aforesaid;

(6) if death is caused by wilfully stopping the breath of any person for either of such purposes, is guilty of murder.

The act of the policeman shooting some shots into the air falls into the category provided in S. 316 (3): “…. which act is of such a nature as to be likely to endanger human life”. 

Therefore, When a person who ought to know and was negligent in his actions which led to the death of another person, the offender will be held to have committed murder and it does not matter that the killer has no intention (mensrea) to cause the death of the victim. 

Murder as an offense is the only crime currently that carries capital punishment in Nigeria. Therefore the punishment for murder as provided in the criminal code act is the death sentence;

S 319(1) provides; Subject to the provisions of this section of this Code, any person who commits the offense of murder shall be sentenced to death.

Section 33(1) of the constitution also acknowledges the death penalty for an offender. It provides thus: Every person has a right to life, and no one shall be deprived intentionally of his life, save in execution of the sentence of a court in respect of a criminal offense of which he has been found guilty in Nigeria.

Trigger happy policemen and other security agents should know that in every action there are consequences, when you cause the unjustified death of another you will pay for it with your own life, it does not matter that the act was done in your line of duty. 

Nigeria’s ruling party, the All Progressive Congress (APC), recently announced that it has tagged the price of presidential ticket for the 2023 elections $100 million, the most expensive in Nigeria’s history and the highest among the political parties.

The decision, which has generated a lot of criticism from members of the public, has put the Party in a spotlight. The criticism has been largely based on the concern that the office of the president is being commercialized.

However, the APC has defended the decision. The party has said that the price isn’t much for anyone vying for the office of the president. The APC national publicity secretary, Felix Morka, said on Monday during an interview with SIlverbird Television, that anyone who does not have the “sufficient base” to raise N100 million has no business being in the race for Nigeria’s presidency.

“I hate to use the US as an example. The ability to raise funds is a clear criterion whether or not you are eligible to participate at the primaries and the debate especially.

“You aspire to run for the highest office in the land, you should have some appeal, some reach to members of the party. Sell your ideas, sell your vision.

“Forty-five million people giving you N1, do the math and see what it comes to. That is a lot of money. We do have that possibility,” he said.

He added that although, within the Nigerian context, N100 million is a lot of money, the party has commitments and “we do not have any statutory funding as you know.”

“Within the context of Nigeria, N100 million is a lot of money. Those who seek the office around the country are expected to have a sufficient base, otherwise why would you aspire to be president, if you are that obscure or unsupportable by your party members and the electorate?” he said.

Where Nigerians’ issues lie.

Nigeria has been bedeviled by poor leadership exacerbated by corruption since its independence in 1960. A parcel of that ordeal is the high cost of governance amid scarce resources. Against this backdrop, the idea of selling a presidential ticket N100 million is not only seen as cynical, it’s also seen as fuel for corruption.

Nigeria’s president annual salary is N14 million, according to the information on the website of the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), an office statutorily empowered by Section 32 (d) of Part 1 of the Third Schedule of the Constitution to determine the remuneration appropriate for political office holders. This means that for the four-year term a presidential candidate will lead the country if he eventually wins, he could only earn N56 million, just a little above half of what he spent to purchase his form alone.

It is thus believed that a presidential aspirant who has no intention of embezzling public fund, will not spend N100 million purchasing the form.

The APC, in its defense of the price, had said that the money could be crowd-funded, taking the burden off the contestant’s shoulders – thus eliminating the tendency of corruption. But critics said that the Nigerian political ecosystem does not have the crowd-funding culture for elections, and in addition, the presidential ticket is just the first money move before the campaigns that will eventually gulp billions of naira.

The campaign, which is seen as spreading as much money as you can to buy votes, is usually funded by a circle of supporters who are expected to be replenished from the government’s coffers if their candidate wins. This political culture has fueled the criticism trailing the ruling party’s decision to hike their ticket fees for aspirants.

The call to reduce the cost of governance in Nigeria, which is said to be among the most exorbitant in the world, weighing the country’s economy down, has been on for long. Nigerians believe that the message the APC is sending by its decision is that the government is not ready to reduce the cost of governance or fight corruption.