User:Kimorah/sandbox

Definition of Police Brutality
Police brutality is also known as police violence in which police officers forcefully use excessive and irrelevant power on citizens which is considered to be a civil right violation because these attacks are usually done physically and verbally. In my opinion police brutality is also a way for police officers to intimidate citizens because they believe they have power and authority over the citizens.

About Nigeria and It’s Policing System
Nigeria is a developing country located on the western part of Africa. Nigeria gained her independence in 1960 and her republican constitution in 1963 which allowed the existence of the local police force and the Nigeria police force. The British colonizers were first to establish a local police force which was established in 1861 to police the Lagos colony.

It’s Policing System
In 1966, there were bad roles associated to the police forces during the first republic which led the Nigerian military to seized power and find solution to cancel any form of bad roles in the local police forces. This attempt worked for a while but when Nigeria started developing more in some aspect like the political system, and but not so much in her economy system. A time came in Nigeria where the officers used their discretion whereby they make choices of what rules and laws will be enforced in society and also how and when these laws enforcement will be used. Movement were made to limit the discretion which led to more abuse and violence from officers. The government then imply that police officers should through more training and orientation to help the situation and help them use their discretion carefully which wasn’t the case.

Examples
In most part of Nigeria, there are trends of young boys duping people in other developed countries like America, Canada etc. These young boys called yahoo boys or 419 people usually dupe white people allowing them believe that they are in love with them, making up a story of travelling to them, convincing them they don't have the money so these people send money to the yahoo boys believing their stories and also sometimes believe that they are the opposite gender. This is still a trend in Nigeria today which led the police to base their judgements on negative stereotypes that most young adults with dreadlocks, tattoos, fancy cars, houses, phones, expensive jewelleries, etc are all yahoo boys. This trend led the police to brutally beat, abuse or shoot most times innocent young males they see have the tendency to be a yahoo boy. In past years and recently, there have been numerous reports of police brutally beating yahoo boys or torturing them to the point of them losing their lives because of what they do.

There is a huge rate of bribery among police officers in Nigeria which police officers see it as their right to torture citizens in other to get these bribes if they refuse. It is said that some of these citizens are innocent but the police officers intimidate these people with their power and make sure to get one or two penny from citizens. There have been issues reported of police officers shooting and killing innocent people because they refuse or don’t have money to give to them.

The crime rate in Nigeria is said to be getting high and worse yearly and the police officers are not helping the situation due to the way they treat criminals. Police officers in Nigeria has taken it upon themselves to physically attack and brutality beat criminals when they catch them. They take matters to their hands before taking these criminals into custody.

In Nigeria, there are 6 ethnic groups in Nigeria which are Hausa, Fulani, Igbo, Yoruba, Efik - Ibibio and Edo and two main religion which are Islam and Christianity. Due to so many different religious, cultures and traditions, there are numerous incidents of fights between these different cultures and religions. Nigeria is known for bring culture and religion into its rules and regulations which has made police officers base their judgments on whether or not you are from their culture or not before physically or verbally attacking people.

At some point in every country women have been treated unfairly and unequal in society which has been a struggle and still is a struggle for women in Nigeria today. In so many part in Nigeria like Lagos, Abuja, Ibadan etc, there have been issues of police officers fatally beating market women who are trying sell their products by road sides. Police officers treat women badly or abuse women in several ways because some believe women are the smaller gender and they should be submissive to their authority. Women are been forcefully raped, beaten or killed if they disobey the police authority.