COVID-19: Security expert’s road map on minimizing deaths, police brutality and armed robbery amidst lockdown

With over 11,000 cases Essex County has the second-highest number of COVID-19 positive patients in the state of New Jersey and Nigerian born Asuquo as a sheriff officer is in the heart of it all; from managing emergencies to maintaining security at the testing sites, even up to coordinating the test results to individuals as they come out from the county’s laboratories.

As he gets busy with work, even being at the forefront of engaging in routine patrols to combat crimes, to managing the county’s most heated emergencies, criminal investigations, custody transport, civil processes, battling narcotics, or even being part of law enforcement task forces to take guns off the streets of New Jersey busiest County Asuquo still finds time to reflect the security life in his birthplace, Nigeria.

 Only last week in Nigeria, Asuquo had followed media reports on deaths and gross human right abuses by the Nigerian security forces perpetrated on unarmed people, same citizens they were meant to protect. All in the bid to enforce a federal declared lockdown to curtain the ravaging spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic, which the most populous black country has currently recorded over 1000 cases.

Lockdown violations and police brutalities

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari had declared a two-week look down in some parts of the country where the cases are all high and there are possibilities that the a lockdown may be extended – some of the country’s various state governments have also taken preemptive measures to declare their independent lockdowns.

But while the country feels comfortable that a lockdown might help the country fight the COVID-19 virus, not much emphasis is placed on providing for its booming population whose means of livelihoods are going to be affected by the unplanned shutdown, an issue that apparently will foil the lockdown order – the exact reasons that bring the public at loggerhead with security operatives, a point where human rights abuses are being perpetrated.

The National Human Rights Commission, last Wednesday said in a press briefing that it had documented 18 deaths and 105 complaints of incidents related to human rights violations being perpetrated by security forces in 24 of Nigeria’s 36 states including Abuja, the capital city.

“how boldly these officers could be that instead of enforcing a law they were in service to, rather were dressed in uniform representing the Nigerian Police Force, armed with their service weapons and criminally engaged in the act of escorting commercial drivers in a van load of persons travelling without adhering to established precautions,” Asuquo said reacting to a viral video making rounds of some Nigerian police officers corruptly engaging motorists on Nigerian roads the heat of the lockdown order by the country’s authorities.

“In hostile environments where law enforcement officers instead of quelling hostilities they turn to aggravate them, while hoodlums and armed bandits prowl freely in the streets. Asuquo believes there is an urgent need for Nigeria’s National Assembly to propose enforceable laws that will enhance public safety as the country battles to curtain the COVID-19 pandemic,” the sheriff officials said.

Adding that “one of such steps will include setting up an appropriate independent panel comprising of non-government employees to investigate the extreme use of force and death caused by law enforcement officers during this ongoing lockdown. The success recorded by this independent panel in stemming out bad eggs in the force will go a long way to change the traditional old ways laws are been enforced across the country.”

 Checkpoints the bane of police malpractices

 Nigeria is a country that depends on security checkpoints on its road as part of its strategy to combat crimes, but Asuquo believes security operatives use it to extort from motorists while security is being neglected and so the U.S Sheriff Officer also calls on Nigeria authorities to eliminate police checkpoints across the country.

“Increased police presence in streets, fix police posts, especially around high designated crime zones to scare off criminal activities”, he said adding that “…surveillance cameras, drones alongside a functional database will periodically monitor crime.”

Awaking functional radio communication systems amongst officers, and taking cogent statistical approaches to map crimes per geography, the sheriff office said will help identify new emerging criminal patterns and check them before they happen.

Nigeria on the verge of a new policing system

In March early this year, the Nigerian Senate had begun considering a policy to decentralize the country’s policing system, if this is given ascent this means the country’s federating states are going to adopt their policing options, a step Asuquo says is in the right direction as it will foster community policing and help salvage the inadequate police presence Nigeria’s communities are faced with.

 “A the state-managed police department is important in the fight to keep Nigerians safe because crime patterns are similar but the magnitude at which it is committed varies from state to state. However, key steps must be taken in other to reap the full benefits of community policing in Nigeria.”

For the proposed police system to work effectively, the sheriff also advocated a better recruiting system, in-service training, use of technology, officer’s accountability and proper police compensations as it will go a long way to discourage ongoing unethical behaviour by most police officers.

For Sheriff Officer Asuquo, radically overhauling the Nigerian Law Enforcement system will help restore the “lost dignity of our security outfits, and win back trust from the public they seek to protect.” Until this happens, human right abuses by security personnel will continue to be on a spree.