By  INNOCENT OSAKWE

There has been a raging controversy in recent times over the way and manner that officials of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, otherwise known as SARS, carry out their constitutionally mandated duty of handling armed robbery suspects. The reaction trailing the activities of SARS, however, rose from the report said to have been submitted to the National Human Rights Commission [NHRC] by Amnesty International [AI]. The report, while indicting men of the anti-robbery squad over the way armed robbery suspects are interrogated, had among other things alleged that men of SARS use torture as an instrument to obtain confessional statements from suspects.

According to the report of Amnesty International [an organization mandated to look into human right abuses], the police in Nigeria have not fared well in their duty, especially with regard to how robbery suspects are handled, for  constitutionally, an armed robbery suspect has a fundamental human right that needs to be protected from abuse. While Amnesty International may be right in its findings, it is imperative to say that an armed robbery suspect’s right begins and ends before he or she embarks on his evil plot. The moment such a robbery suspect carries out his or her intention, his right ceases. His right ceases because, the law of the land has stipulated a penalty for a person who as a deviant feels that he can molest, intimidate and harass innocent citizens while dispossessing them of their valuables. After all, there is no part of the nation’s constitution that recognizes robbery as a legitimate business. Only a legitimate business is protected by law.

Anything contrary to this will amount to exposing the right-thinking members of the society to dangerous activities of these outlaws, who believe that they can perpetuate their whims and caprices and get away with them. Therefore, Amnesty International and the National Human Rights Commission if they want to truly serve the public, should as a matter of course first investigate the number of persons whom these dangerous human beings have harmed and verify if such people do not have fundamental human rights that need to be protected from the activities of such dangerous elements, too.

Besides, they should come out to tell Nigerians between these dangerous elements and the right thinking members of the public whom they harm who has more fundamental human right that needs to be protected. Is it the criminals or the right-thinking members of the public whom they harm? Amnesty International and the National Human Rights Commission coming out therefore to condemn the lawful activities of SARS is wrong as they have not taken stock of those persons whom these deviants have harmed. There is no way a criminal who, in full consciousness of the consequences of his actions, chooses to embark on them, will lay claim to fundamental human rights to the detriment of the public whom they harm. The posture of Amnesty International and the National Human Rights Commission  on the way SARS officials carry out their activities is a dangerous trend that should be condemned by all well-meaning Nigerians, otherwise it will amount to justifying the wicked activities of these criminals, who ordinarily should have no space mong the sane members of the society. Why should armed robbery suspect who knows the consequence of his activities talk of fundamental human rights? Why did he not consider the implications of his evil intent before embarking on it? Are Amnesty International and the National Human Right Commission saying that armed robbery is an acceptable profession in the society?

Related News

Before the Laws of the Almighty, a man must always reap what he has sown. In this regard, Amnesty International and the National Human Rights Commission will fare better if they embark on sensitizing the youths on dangers and implications of armed robbery rather than condemning men of the Nigerian Police who risk their lives in order to protect the right thinking members of the public from such dangerous elements.

Even in the advanced countries, very severe methods are employed by security agencies in order to obtain truths from suspected and hardened criminals like armed robbers. If therefore Amnesty International and the National Human Rights Commission are advocating that armed robbery suspects should, while being interrogated, be served fried rice and chicken with salad and red wine, then the two organizations have no business in this country as they are only postulating that criminals should be unleashed on the public. Where is that armed robbery suspect who will tell the police the truth without the police bringing minimal force to bear on him? Do Amnesty International and the National Human Rights Commission not know the seriousness of armed robbery and the danger it poses to the society? Is there any justification for a man to leave his house late in the night, armed with a gun and other dangerous weapons to go and wake up another law abiding citizen to give him his hard-earned wealth, with a condition of death where such person fails to do his biddings? If anything, SARS should be commended for removing such degenerates from the society at the expense of their own lives and should not be condemned for doing their job. Because sad as it seems, sometimes these ‘wise men’ in Nigeria often do not know where to lay their blame or criticism. Interestingly, Amnesty International and the National Human Rights Commission’s complain would have carried weight, if they are saying that those whom SARS are arresting and dealing with  are innocent citizens.

Therefore, these groups should please spare Nigerians their clamor for fundamental human rights for notorious and hardened criminals, who in sane societies do not have a space. They will rather fare better by first going to sensitize such criminals on the danger their evil ways pose to the society at large and the consequence of their action when apprehended.

The Nigerian Police has been constitutionally empowered to deal with criminals, and there will be no need for SARS to spare them, so long  as those they are fighting against are armed robbers and not innocent citizens. Perhaps too, Amnesty International and the National Human Rights Commission, if they love this country, should better focus their searchlight on those politically exposed persons who have stolen this country blind and tell them that they do not have any fundamental human rights to lay claim to rather than defending hardened criminals who pose a grave danger to the society at large.

Osakwe writes from Asaba