It will be a monumental tragedy and an embarrassment to Nigeria and the police as a critical state institution if the allegation is eventually proved that a 17-year-old girl was raped recently by a police officer in his office at the Ogudu police station in Lagos State.
The sordid narrative is that the innocent girl was invited to the station ostensibly to identify and retrieve her stolen phone, as the thieves who had robbed her of it had been arrested already. However, when she got to the station, the story changed. The police claimed to have apprehended the wrong persons due to their error in tracking the stolen phone, and she was subsequently directed to the office of a police officer who later allegedly violated and assaulted her sexually. To have his way, he allegedly hit her with the butt of his gun! And as if that was not bad enough, he allegedly instructed the victim to be reporting at his office by 12 pm every day during school break or while returning from school.
He also allegedly claimed that he had been watching her for two years and now she had just fallen into his trap! A police officer watched a young girl since she was 15, looking for the opportunity to defile her. A police station was turned into a venue where an innocent citizen was violated and assaulted. This had better not be true. It is bizarre, horrible and shameful.
If the victim’s narration is accurate, it is difficult to fathom why the suspected aberrant officer was so brave and delusional to believe that he could rape a teenager in his office without any consequences. How did he expect the case to turn out? Did he think the young girl would not report the incident? Or could it be that there is nothing novel about a law enforcement agent raping an innocent girl at a police station?
Could it be that this dastardly act had been committed with impunity by this officer and his ilk at Ogudu police station and many other police stations in the past? Is this one of the ongoing atrocities being perpetrated by unscrupulous personnel across police stations in the land? The relevant authorities launching an inquiry into this incident are urged not to treat the instant case as an isolated one.
They should go the whole hog, unravel this variant of gross misconduct, and rein it in once and for all. Unfortunately, this is a clime where previous victims of police sexual assault are most unlikely to come forward to seek justice for fear of reprisal and/or stigmatization. Therefore, the investigation should be deliberately conducted in a manner that will reveal whether sexual assault at police stations is a systemic issue.
It is, nonetheless, comforting that state intervention in the matter has been swift in coming. The Lagos State Domestic and Sexual Violence Agency (DSVA) has taken up the matter, and it says it will ensure justice. Also, the spokesman of the Lagos State Police command, Benjamin Hundeyin, debunked the rumours doing the rounds that the command was shielding the suspected rapist from justice, and confirmed that he is already in police custody. These are welcome developments.
If there is any case that should be treated with utmost seriousness, it is a case like this that points in the direction of virtual collapse of orderliness in an otherwise disciplined and regimented service.
A police station is supposed to be a place of refuge and justice for law-abiding citizens. It is distressing, therefore, that a station has been alleged to be the site of the vicious rape of a minor. The likelihood that suspected criminals are not just those in custody but that they also include some police personnel who are exercising custodial authority is really disturbing.
If those who are supposed to keep the law break it in the most vicious manner, then what is the citizenry supposed to do? How can a police officer allegedly deceive a minor into visiting the station to retrieve her stolen phone, only to rape her? The implication of the current sordid state of affairs is that if things continue to go this way, people will resort to self-help.
It is axiomatic that if people no longer trust the police for justice they will not go to them, and that would be a recipe for anarchy and chaos in the society. Yet it would appear that the much needed police reform that stakeholders have continued to clamour for is not being taken seriously by the authorities.
Otherwise, the force would not have had to contend with one scandal after the other following the activities of ill-informed, decadent and aberrant operatives. Surely, reform is a must if the police are to conform to international best practices in their activities and conduct. In the interim, however, it may be useful to institute a mechanism to discretely track the activities of the officers and men to ensure that they stay within the precincts of decency and decorum in their interface with citizens. It would not be out of place if they explore the possibility of achieving this by making a recourse to whistle-blowers to snitch on personnel who habitually breach the law.
We expect this case to be thoroughly handled and prosecuted publicly so that everybody would learn that there is no place for the use of the office to commit atrocities. The police do not need to be told that they must shun the temptation to invoke esprit de corps in the handling of this case or treat the suspected rapist with kid gloves for whatever reason, because it is officers accused of such crimes that drag the name of the force through the mud. Indeed, we expect every well-meaning personnel to support and promote any official step designed to rid the police force of bad eggs. Truth be told, in terms of public perception and optics, the police cannot be said to be in a good place.
It is bad enough that it is thought, and perhaps rightly so, that they are incapable of effectively executing their core mandate of protecting lives and properties, but that some of them are descending into the arena of criminality is bizarre and scandalous. The authorities are, therefore, urged to up their ante and rein in the pernicious tendency.
In addition to ensuring that the victim gets justice, the DSVA should also endeavour if the allegations are established, to ensure that she is given all the assistance needed to help her manage if not totally overcome, the harrowing physical and mental experience she has been made to go through. The alleged rape reflects very badly on the Nigerian society, and much more so on the police as the leading state institution saddled with the responsibility of containing acts of criminality.
Tribune Editorial