How The Nigerian Army Is Shielding A ‘Killer Officer’, Umaru Ibrahim, From Prosecution
It’s been almost two months since a Lagos businessman, Engr Jide Ayeni, lost his life on the street of Lagos due to the recklessness of a military officer, Corporal Umaru Ibrahim, who knocked him down while driving against traffic, and it appears his family may never get justice despite the willingness of the Police to prosecute the alleged killer.
Ayeni’s family is distressed, bereaved, helpless and yet to come to terms with the sad reality that the death of the pillar of their home is gradually being swept under the carpet by top officers of the 81 Division of the Nigerian Army in Lagos who have been accused of using their power and influence to frustrate the case and ensure it does not see the light of the day.
Despite increasing outrage from citizens and international organisations, a vast majority of human rights abuses and extrajudicial killings linked to soldiers in different parts of Nigeria go unpunished. Many of the cases are thrown under the carpet by the military authority under the guise of assigning it to the Military Police to investigate.
In December 2015, a 13-member judicial commission set up to probe the killings of more than 300 people buried in a mass grave in Zaria, Kaduna state during clashes between the military and members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (Shiites), had recommended the prosecution of the soldiers involved in the crime. About five years after they are yet to be brought to book.
It is more worrisome that the military’s excessive abuse of power has gotten to a crescendo level where cases of killings of police officers by soldiers are also thrown under the carpet by the government who shields the soldiers from prosecution.
In August 2019, some soldiers in Taraba State killed three police officers of the Intelligence Response Team (IRT) who had arrested a kidnap kingpin Bala Hamisu (aka Wadume) and freed the suspect after accusing the policemen of being kidnappers. Despite confessions by Wadume indicting the soldiers as his accomplices and overwhelming evidence against them, the Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN), withdrew the charges against the troops. Almost a year after, the police officers killed in the course of patriotic duty are yet to get justice while their killers working for a kidnapper are being protected by the government.
Many Nigerians have wondered what will be the fate of a citizen who is a victim of the military’s impunity when cases of impunity from the soldiers against the Police are thrown under the carpet. In the past, many of those cases barely see the light of the day, and in the last one year, only one of the tens of cases of abuses against the soldiers was widely reported to have made it to a law court – the case of a soldier who raped a student of the Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba-Akoko in 2019.
While the long list of cases of soldiers’ impunity remain unresolved, Corporal Ibrahim is also about to get away with the alleged murder of Ayeni with the aid of some senior officers in the Nigerian Army. Ibrahim is still walking freely after allegedly killing Ayeni with his motorcycle on June 5, 2020.
According to several eyewitnesses accounts, Ibrahim was riding a motorcycle against traffic in Lagos Island on the said date when he knocked down Ayeni, a father of two young kids, who was standing by the road side on the one-way street.
A CCTV footage of the incident seen by Neusroom also shows the moment the victim was waiting to cross the road but was knocked down by Ibrahim who was riding a motorcycle at top speed, despite the ban on motorcycle operations in the state. The Police took the right step by charging the suspect to court but he was released to the Army on the request of Major Andy Danbeki, the Commanding Officer, Army Signal Regiment, of the Arakan Cantonment in Apapa.
Since Ibrahim was released to the Army, his case has been stalled as the Army has refused to turn him in for trial. When Neusroom spoke with the senior officers – Major Andy Danbeki and Major Kazeem Adeta – accused of trying to bury the case, they re-echoed the familiar cliche common with cases that have suffered similar fate – the case is a “military affair” and the Military Police is handling it, they said.
In a letter dated June 30, 2020, the DPO of Lion Building Police Station in Lagos Island SP Adaobi Okafor, had requested that the suspect be turned in for prosecution as he was due for arraignment on July 1. It has been almost 30 days since the Police wrote the Military Police to release Ibrahim but it is yet to comply.
Ayeni was a businessman who was out like every other Nigerian in search of his daily bread, but sadly his life was cut short by the recklessness of an Army corporal. The sad reality is that Ayeni’s case may also go down as one of the many cases of military impunity that have gone down the drain unpunished.
What will be the fate of his helpless and bereaved family as well as his two young kids crying for justice? Should this case go unpunished, the country would have succeeded in sowing a seed of bitterness and hatred for Nigeria in the hearts of those little kids who will grow with disdain for the country that protected their father’s killer from the wrath of the law.
The Army is yet to provide any justification for not releasing Ibrahim for prosecution, information from the Military Police “investigating the case” has been vague and suspicious. Rather than taking the right action by turning Ibrahim in for trial, Danbeki and Adeta appear to be only interested in luring the Neusroom correspondent investigating the case to Dodan Barracks, Lagos for a meeting “to resolve the issue.”
The Military claimed it is investigating the case, yet the report of its ‘investigation’ is yet to be released close to two months after the incident.
