Two events I came across yesterday captured the state of Nigeria’s police-public relations with unsettling clarity. In Port Harcourt, angry youths blocked Agip Road to protest the killing of Anthony Obodo, a 22-year-old University of Port Harcourt graduate murdered by a police officer. The youths’ anger is not hard to understand. The Rivers State police commissioner, who warned that the protest could be “hijacked by hoodlums”, completely missed the point. His response, the unfortunate standard of Nigeria’s security apparatus, is to treat legitimate grievance as a potential security threat. It has been happening since 1929. Meanwhile, Anthony Obodo’s family is left with a dead son and a vague hope of justice.
The pattern is not new, and that is precisely the problem. In 2020, the #EndSARS protests erupted after a video surfaced showing police officers with the SARS unit killing a young man in Delta State. That spark ignited a national protest which was only put down following the brutal events at the Lekki Toll Gate.
The case of ASP Usman Nuhu, the police officer filmed killing musician Oghenemine Ogidi in Delta State, is a textbook illustration of why young Nigerians have lost faith in the police and increasingly resort to self-help. Nuhu and four other officers were arraigned on 30 June. Nuhu pleaded not guilty to murder; the others pleaded not guilty to lesser charges. The court adjourned to 14 July 2026 for trial to begin. That is where the public record ends. No reporting has emerged confirming whether the trial commenced, let alone reached a verdict. It is entirely plausible that the matter remains pending, buried in the court’s docket.
This is the pattern: a…
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Read Full Article by Cheta Nwanze at businessday.ng
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