NIGERIA has become a society perennially associated with unsavoury news and tales of woe verging on killings, maiming and the like, some of which are patently avoidable and largely self-inflicted. For example, few days ago, Master Kehinde Alade, a Senior Secondary School 1 (SS1) student, was allegedly shot and killed in his father’s car as a result of certain adults’ misconduct bordering on bad judgment, recklessness and overzealousness.
The sordid narrative is that the father of the deceased, Odunayo Alade, broke traffic rules and, in an attempt to avoid arrest, drove recklessly, thereby further endangering the lives and properties of road users, including his child’s. In the same vein, officials of the Oyo State Traffic Management Authority (OYTMA) and some police officers, in a joint enforcement operation, gave the reckless driver driving against the traffic a hot chase. And as if that was not bad enough, in defiance of their rules of engagement, they shot at Alade’s car, apparently when he appeared to be escaping justice. And by the time they were done, Kehinde Alade, who was in the car in company with his twin brother and three other children, had been killed. Up
It is difficult to fathom why a supposedly sensible and responsible person would resort to driving recklessly to evade arrest when there were five children in the car! While we commiserate with Odunayo Alade over the loss of his child, he can hardly be absolved of culpability in his death. One, he should not have used the wrong lane judging by the risks such a breach of the traffic rule posed to other road users. And, two, he should have stopped, particularly when he saw that he was being chased by traffic officials and police. Rather, he chose to take a senseless gamble that smacks of suicide even with his children in the car.
He claimed his car was hit by the traffic officials’ vehicle, but the police also accused him of ramming a car and a truck belonging to the traffic officials while trying to make good his escape. It was a sheer act of irresponsibility and recklessness. Even if he could not care a hoot about his own safety, he should at least have spared a thought for the safety of the innocent children in his car. He did not only imperil the lives of the children by driving recklessly, he also put them in harm’s way by trying to escape from arms-bearing law enforcement agents! That was a dangerous gamble, though it need not have attracted being shot at.
This incident is unfortunate. However, the tragic incident could have been averted if the officials involved had been more professional in executing their law enforcement operation. The question is, if a misguided citizen behaved badly and irresponsibly, must the officials of the state act likewise or even worse? This is not the first time that the police have been accused of indiscriminate killing in circumstances where better judgment would have led to the avoidance of tragedy. Clearly, the level of violence evident in the attempted arrest in this case was excessive.
Why ram a vehicle in order to arrest the driver? Since there was no obvious threat to life, the police evidently went overboard by shooting at the victims and killing a child in the process. After all, the death penalty is no punishment for traffic offence. Even if it were, it is not the place of the police or any state officials to mete out justice to those who breached the law. That is the exclusive preserve of the law court.
It is a fact that the collaboration between police and traffic enforcement officials often involves raw violence. They are notorious for chasing recalcitrant drivers and causing accidents. Worse still, the perception in some quarters is that the overzealousness of the police and the traffic officials has nothing to do with their passion for the job; it is often driven by the desire to extort bribes from traffic offenders and innocent road users. Cases abound of drivers and/or their conductors being shot at and/or killed by policemen over failure to give a bribe as little as N100 or less, even when the victims were not in breach of any known traffic rules.
Like in many aspects of the country’s governance, the failure to fully embrace technology in law enforcement has slowed down progress significantly. The technology for traffic control and enforcement of rules is available in the country. For instance, if you commit traffic offence in Lagos State, you can receive SMS on your phone indicating the offence and with directions to pay fines. Traffic law enforcement should be tech-driven and scientific; it should not involve chasing people up and down the road, putting the community in peril. For instance, why not take down the number plate of erring motorists and effect their arrest later instead of giving a deadly chase that risks the lives of innocent people? It is saddening that such risks crystalised in the instant case with the death of Kehinde Alade.
While not justifying a breach of the law under any guise, the Oyo State government may wish to tweak its fines for breaches of traffic codes, which some consider to be outrageous. The huge fines could motivate poor and undisciplined traffic offenders to take precipitate measures to evade arrest.
Enforcement of traffic rules should be aimed at maintaining sanity and orderliness on the roads, not revenue generation. It is comforting that both the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, and the Oyo State Commissioner of Police, Johnson Adenola, are showing more than a passing interest in the horrific incident. However, we urge a painstaking and dispassionate inquiry unimpaired by esprit de corps so that the errant personnel whose indiscretion has sullied the police’s image can be sanctioned to the fullest extent of the law, if found guilty.
The death of Kehinde Alade, an innocent secondary school child, from gunshot wounds reflects very badly on the image of the country and, in particular, that of the police and OYTMA.
Written By The Editorial Team of Nigerian Tribune Newspaper