IS there a prize for policemen who gun down unarmed civilians? What motivates the police to shoot unarmed, peaceful protesters? These questions are not new. We are askingA them again because there have been no answers.

The shootings are usually unprovoked. The victims are shot mostly to kill, not to deter them. Shots are not fired to the leg or other places that could disable the target. Shots are aimed at the head and chest areas. The police appear remorseful after the incidents, yet within days or hours, more reports of similar incidents follow.

We tend to blame these killings on poor weapon training. There seem to be more reasons. The police appear on a mission to kill and could feel defeated if they do not. In all the incidents that they killed people during the current fuel price protests, the shootings were not to protect the police or property.

The police would create panic, and then shoot. In the first incident in Ilorin, the young man died from a stray bullet. In Lagos, the police jumped off their vehicle and started firing life bullets at young people who were playing football on a road without protests. One died and four were injured.

Other incidents in Ibadan, Abeokuta, Kaduna, Benin City, allegedly occurred when hoodlums highjacked the protests, burning properties, extorting innocent citizens and generally wreaking havoc.

Already there were curfews in Edo, Oyo, Kano, Kaduna, Adamawa, Niger, and in other States. People are staying home to avoid attacks by the police and hoodlums who have hijacked the protests.

Why are the police unable to keep their fingers off the trigger? The zeal with which these killings are executed and the fact that the offenders are often unpunished seems to encourage the police in their mindless missions.

Are the police drawing their powers from the law? Order 237, which Amnesty International rates “unacceptable” gives the police powers during riots to “single out” and fire at “ring-leaders in the forefront of the mob.” How the police make these decisions, which could be their defence during trials on the killings, is a matter for guesswork.

Some of those killed were bystanders or passers by. Others were going after their lawful business with the belief that the police would protect them. The police called them hoodlums, as if they should not have arrested and tried them, if they committed any offence.

One of the major issues of these protests would be tackling police brutality. It has been left for too long.