By Emma Nnadozie,  Crime Editor
The escape of Umar Kabir, aka  Kabir Sokoto, the alleged mastermind of the Christmas Day bombing of St. Theresa’s Catholic Church, Madalla, near Abuja, which caused the death of over 43 persons and left many others injured, no doubt, dealt a heavy blow to the already saggy image of the police. The force, which has a long history of  failure to  resolve high profile cases, might find it more  difficult to  gain the  confidence of the populace.

Even with the sacking of the Inspector-General of Police, Hafiz Ringim, whose era orchestrated the escape of the high-profile suspect and the lingering Boko Haram insurgency, the task  of reclaiming public confidence in the force  remains a mirage. There in lies the enormity of the  challenges faced by  the new police helmsman, Mohammed Abubakar.

Kabir Sokoto was arrested alongside an unnamed  serving military officer  at the Borno State Governor’s Lodge in Asokoro District, Abuja.  The suspect reportedly escaped from police custody few days after his arrest. Reports said the police commissioner handling the investigation, Mr Zakari Biu, detailed five policemen to take the suspect to his apartment in Abaji, a satellite town in the Federal Capital, for routine search.

*Men of the Nigerian Police

The policemen were said to have been attacked and overpowered by suspected Boko Haram members and Umar, in handcuffs, escaped.  The reported escape of the suspect and the circumstances surrounding  it bore, glaringly, the taste of a Hollywood drama, given the fact that a  truck load of policemen was used to  effect  the arrest while only five policemen were later sent to search his home. This has shown the laickadaisical attitude  of  members of the force to  official duties.

The consolation today is that IGP Abubakar has a hostory of calling his men to order.  Once when he was arrested by his own men for no offence in Lagos at a time he was their  Commissioner of Police, Abubakar ensured at the end of the day that policemen should not see themselves as being above the law. And upon assumption of office, he  read the riot act, making it clear that professionalism and correctness should be returned to the force.

In the past, the police  have shown a terrifying degree of coldness while investigating high profile cases, mainly when it affects one of their own. One of the cases  often cited is  the Apo Six killing, in June 8, 2005,  where some policemen in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, killed five boys, all said to be motor spare part traders at the Apo Mechanic Village and a lady said to be returning from a club when they ran into a road block mounted by the police.

Nothing meaningful was achieved throughout the investigations. The suspected perpetrators of that heinous crime were openly identified.  The trial  has been at the FCT  High Court presided over by Justice Isaq Bello since 18 January, 2006.

While the case was still under investigation, one of the major suspects disappeared mysteriously from police custody.  His disappearance caused a stir but  till date  his whereabouts are not  known.

Reliable police sources disclosed that the pattern of escape is always the same with cops accused of misdemenor who usually end up being posted to remote areas of the country where nobody will  find them.  Those of them that come from the north  normally end up being  posted to the remotest areas of the region or the towns close to our neighboring countries.

Same also goes for those from the south.  In extreme cases, the cabal in the force will ensure that the escapee ends  up in one of the neighboring countries like the case of the officer that  allegedly ended up in Niger Republic after the Apo  Six incident. Shockingly, such suspects have been alleged to be drawing their salaries and other benefits.

A similar incident took place in December, 2010.  The divisional police officer  (DPO) in charge of Olosa  police station, Mushin, Lagos, allegedly shot and killed a middle-aged man, Femi Best, in front of Onipanu police station, along Ikorodu  Road.  After his highly publicized arrest and assurances from the force that justice will take its course, nothing  was heard about it  till date.

While Lagosians were  still grappling with that, another  DPO, in charge of Pen-Cinema  police station, Shegun Fagbumi, allegedly shot and killed a young man, Ademola Aderinde, during the protest against the fuel subsidy removal at Ogba area.  The family of the deceased are alleging attempts to cover up the case  but police authorities are denying.

Another  heartrending case took place in the university town of Nsukka, Enugu State, about five years ago. The DPO  in-charge of the town, one  chief superintendent of police,CSP, Seriki,  reportedly arrested two secondary school students who were on errand for their parents  for wandering.

He allegedly took them to his station and clamped them into cell in spite of their persistent pleas that they were running errand for their family. No efforts were made to  contact their parents or verify their claims. Even when their parents got hint of their arrest and rushed to the station to iron things out, the DPO objected to their release.

The following morning when their distraught parents came to take their wards home, they were shocked to hear that police could not  tell  their whereabouts.  Few days later, the dead bodies of the school children were discovered in shallow graves 20 kilometers from Nsukka town. This sparked protests in the town  after it was found that the students were taken to a nearby town and killed in the midnight while vital parts of their bodies were removed.

The DPO and all those that allegedly  took part in the criminal act were rounded up and detained.

While people were still anxiously waiting for their prosecution, stories filtered out that the same suspected DPO was promoted to the next rank. Later, the  DPO was said to had disappeared from cell.  The father of one of the murdered students  died on hearing that the DPO had disappeared.

Though there were stories of award of N5milion to the  families of the dead students later by the court, the fact remains that  the DPO evaded justice.

Now that a fresh case has reared its ugly head, the  police officers that  allegedly aided the escape of Kabir Sokoto including Police Commissioner Zakari Biu are said to be under house arrest. Although the bombing suspect has now been arrested, but the officers allegedly involved in the case still under house arrest, this has brought to the fore the urgent need for the acting IGP  to re-visit all such cases  of indicted police officers escaping from custody by setting up a special investigating team made up of  policemen, members of other security agencies and even journalists.

This will go a long way in showing that not only justice will be done but  it will also project  a different policy thrust of the new police administration. This will be quite distinct from the usual parlance of marshaling out  ten, six, seven or even twelve-point agenda which had typified all police administrations immediately after a new man takes over as IGP.