By CHIEDU UCHE OKOYE

It cannot be gainsaid that Nigeria has returned to the Hobbesian state of nature where life is short, brutish, and nasty, what with millions of Nigerians living below the breadline, and policemen and other security operatives mowing down innocent people in broad daylight. We are told that the Nigerian police personnel are our best friends, but they have proved to be our worst enemies. Not only do they extort money from us, but they also turn and train their guns at us during crisis situations.

On February 27, 2025, the people of Obosi in Anambra state received the sad and depressing news of the death of Mr. Chidebe Ibeakuzie, a prominent youth leader in Obosi. A member of a combined team of security personnel brought to maintain peace and quell violence at a tricycle park near army cantonment, Onitsha shot him dead. He posed no threat to them when he was brutally and sadistically killed.

The lingering dispute between Hon. Edward Ibuzo from Onitsha and the family members of the deceased Tochukwu Anyaoku, who are from Obosi, Anambra state, caused the death of the young, promising, and charismatic Chidebe Ibeakuzie. Their dispute over the ownership of a tricycle park snowballed into a conflict, which resulted in the invitation of DSS personnel by Hon. Ibuzo, a native of Onitsha.

But instead of using civil methods to control the chaotic situation at the tricycle park, the DSS personnel went overboard, and got into a frenzy of sporadic shooting. So an irresponsible and irascible DSS officer shot an unarmed Mr. Ibeakuzie at close quarters, killing him. Are the Nigerian police officers, DSS personnel, and other Nigerian security operatives on hire for the liquidation of innocent Nigerians, who are in the bad books of their rivals?

It Is saddening that our security operatives’ exhibition of professional misconducts and misuse of firearms, which do result in fatalities, have become a permanent feature of our national life. It is now characteristic of them to kill unarmed people for the flimsiest of reasons and lamest of excuses. So the recent and unwarranted abridgement of the life of Mr. Chidebe Ibeakuzie in Anambra state has highlighted the fact that Nigerians are living at the mercy of irascible, eccentric, irresponsible, and callous security operatives.

A trip down the memory lane has shown that it has become customary for our security operatives and police officers to kill civilians unjustly, unlawfully, and brutally. On April 24, 2022, a drunk police officer killed two friends, Igwe Odinaka and Chikere Obieche, who were businessmen, at a hotel bar in Lagos. And on December 25, 2022, a cop attached to the Ajah police station in Lagos shot dead a 41-year-old pregnant lawyer, Bolanle Rahman. The name of the killer cop is Drambi Vandi.

More so, some years ago, a handful of policemen killed six friends, who were traveling in a car in Abuja. The murder of the six people by the police officers was tagged the Apo-six murder, then. The murdered persons, who were traders, were: Ekene Isaac Mgbe, Ifeanyi Ozor, Chinedu Meniru, Paulinus Ogbonna, Anthony Nwokike, and Augustina Arebu.

Before then, in the 1980s, a promising and young Nigerian athlete whose name was Ndubuisi Dele Udo was mowed down by police bullets on a Lagos road. He had returned to Nigeria from America only for him to be killed by an angry and sadistic police officer when he got into an argument with that police officer.

The list of young Nigerians whose lives were cut short owing to the Nigerian police officers’ excesses and acts of irresponsibility has kept on lengthening with the passage of time. Those young Nigerians whose lives were abridged by the police officers could have contributed their quotas for the development of Nigeria if they hadn’t been needlessly and wickedly killed. Their untimely deaths caused by the Nigerian police officers’ acts of brutality and rascality are festering wounds in the hearts of their relatives and friends.

Sadly, when we thought that the era of the murder of innocent Nigerians by our country’s security personnel had passed, a DSS officer killed Mr. Chidebe Ibeakuzie, a symbol of the Obosi youths’ valour. His death has devastated and traumatised members of his family, friends, and the people of Obosi in Anambra state. And his very young children will grow up without having a father, who will guide them and provide for their financial needs.

More so, his death has brought to the fore the urgent need for the government to carry out a holistic reformation of the Nigeria Police Force, the Department of the State Service, and the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps. Recruitment of officers into these organizations should be stringent so as to prevent people, who are on the lunatic fringe from joining them. And security personnel who have run foul of our laws should be speedily brought to justice. Doing that will serve as a deterrence to other errant officers.

The wastage of human’lives through our security officers’ murderous deeds does not bode well for our country’s future. If anything, it will depopulate the youth demographic that constitutes the pool from which companies and government establishments can recruit workers. And the endemic culture of the liquidation of innocent and unarmed Nigerians during crisis situations erodes the trust we repose in them.

Lastly, the killer of Mr. Chidebe Ibeakuzie, the Obosi youth leader, should be arrested and put on trial. Doing that will restore people’s confidence and trust in the police force, DSS, and NSCDC.

•Chiedu Uche Okoye, a poet, writes from Uruowulu-Obosi, Anambra State. He can be reached via 08062220654 and 09125204141