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By Chioma Okezie-Okeh
For long, inter-agency rivalry among security operatives has become so glaring in the country. The most affected agency, many would agree, is the Nigeria Police and its personnel. Several times, Nigerians have witnessed incidents during which military officers – Army, Navy and the Air Force – unleash their fury on police officers and men, beating them blue and black. At other times, police officers have also descended on personnel of other security organizations. 
Although the others see policemen as bully, security experts insist that all are guilty of impunity and until boundaries are set such clashes will continue.
One of such instances happened in late January when operatives of the Nigerian Police, Department of State Security (DSS) and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) reportedly engaged one another in what is said to be a supremacy battle in Osun State.
The three agencies were said to have been at loggerheads for a while and the lingering disharmony among the security outfits took a new twist recently after Olawale Olokode, the state Commissioner of Police, paraded some suspects over alleged kidnapping. It is understood that one of the suspects had accused the NSCDC and DSS of connivance in the kidnapping, thereby compounding the matter.
The suspect, identified as Akeem Ogunibi, who was paraded by the police for alleged kidnapping, was said to have fingered NSCDC personnel and DSS operatives in the kidnap of a bureau de change operator, Mallam Bala.
Barely a week before then, a viral video surfaced online, showing soldiers beating up a policeman who was controlling traffic.
According to Brigadier General Onyema Nwachukwu, Director of Public Relations, one of the suspects, a Lance Corporal was arrested. He said efforts were being made to identify, locate and arrest the remaining culprit.
In the latest video shared on social media, about five soldiers were seen beating a policeman. The incident was said to have happened during the weekend along Market Road in Warri, Delta State. The security operatives were said to be fighting one another over food and money. This comes amid claims by the Nigerian Army (NA) that officers of the Nigeria Police Force were brutalizing some of its personnel.
In a letter dated November 23, 2021, to all formations and units, the Chief of Army Staff called on military officers to “forward all recorded incidence of police brutality against personnel of the Nigerian Army.”
The letter which was reportedly signed by Major General J. A. Ataguba stated that the Nigerian Army is constitutionally tasked to provide aid to civil authorities when called upon. “This responsibility has occasioned conducting joint activities with members of the civil and paramilitary organizations. These joint operations with other security agencies particularly the Nigeria Police create occasions for the police to equate its hierarchy with the NA and this has often led to friction, especially at the lower levels.
“This friction has occasionally led to bodily harm and in some cases death to our troops. This is in spite of the fact that the victims have been identified and established to be serving personnel.
“This department is therefore conducting an evaluation of these occurrences with a view to establishing the frequency and recommend possible remedial measures to stem the tide. Consequently, all NA corps, formations and establishments are please requested to forward all recorded incidence of police brutality against personnel of the NA.
“The report should cover the last two years. Returns to reach this NLT 8 December 21 and should be forwarded using enclosed formal,” the letter read in parts.
Why they clash
A security expert and former Director with the Department of State Security Service, Dennis Amachree, noted that most security operatives were busy trying to impress their employers than doing their jobs.
His words: “It is unfortunate to see security operatives including the military and police, engaging in unhealthy rivalry. Sometimes it degenerates into fisticuffs, all because of lack of service objectives and arrogance. The security services were originally created to ensure regime protection. Rather than pursue nation goals and interests, they are busy trying to impress their paymasters.
“Usually, especially among the lower ranks, there is this sense of unfounded superiority complex which when resisted could degenerate into physical fights.”
He suggested that the service chiefs can bring this to an end by defining the different service objectives to their officers as well as the rank and file. “They should understand that they are working for a common national goal. Emphasis should be on cooperation than competition.”
Another security consultant and founder of Apex Safety and Security Consultants, Mike Ejiofor blamed it on increase in impunity in the country. “Such clashes amongst security operatives have been there and it is not peculiar with Nigeria. There is this rivalry all over the world among security agencies. It is actually reducing in Nigeria but in cases where they fight, it could be over a personal issue. In a normal situation there is need for the leaders of these agencies to take decisive actions on erring service personnel to serve as deterrent to others. Instead, the agencies will try to protect their own and thereby encouraging others to continue exhibiting acts of indiscipline.
“Each of the agencies try to protect their own, encouraging others to go ahead and do it. There is so much impunity in the country now; everybody behaves the way they like. We need to change our attitude especially amongst those who are supposed to enforce law and order. But if they are fighting, it becomes a problem. There is one video that went viral where we saw one policeman carrying food for the principal and you can see the impunity. How can somebody eat that amount of food and a policeman is carrying the plate of food and following her? The police authorities need to deal with such erring staff. If he is disciplined, he will resist such order. There is general poverty in the country and because of a little tip, there is a tendency for them succumb to such instruction,” he stated.
He also stated that clashes among security operatives will continue as they see themselves as competition. “The problem is that everyone is trying to impress their employers by making sure that the credit goes to them. People don’t align themselves with their statutory responsibilities, police will be doing the work of army and army will do the work of police. Civil Defence will be doing the work of SSS. There are clear cut demarcations and actually the functions overlap. There are clear cut responsibilities but they won’t abide by them. This is why they have some of these clashes. The one that happened between the police and the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), if not for the publicity that NDLEA gave by addressing a press conference, maybe the police would not have easily handed them over.
Past clashes
In 2011, men of the Nigerian Army soldiers clashed with policemen who were trying to stop them from using the BRT lane at Obanikoro, Lagos. In 2013, there was a clash between naval officers and men of the Lagos State Police Command. Two policemen allegedly sustained injuries in the fight and police patrol vehicles including Armoured Personnel Carriers, APC, were destroyed. Recently, men of the Nigerian Navy engaged in a street fight at Ojuelegba with operatives of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Lagos. The naval officers reportedly abducted Sergeant Vicky, a policewoman attached to the Traffic Section of the Lagos State Police Command, because she hit the body of their car at Mushin in Lagos.
On May 23 2011, it was total bedlam in Badagry, Lagos after a group of heavily armed soldiers from the 242 Recce Battalion, Iberepo Badagry went berserk. They allegedly took over strategic locations in the community, maiming and killing any policeman in sight. It was gathered that one of their colleagues had been killed earlier by a police officer, and the soldiers shot at and killed any police officer they set their eyes on.
Among those killed were a Divisional Police Officer, Saliu Samson, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP) and his Divisional Crime Officer and Deputy Superintendent of Police (DPS) Samuel. The two had gone to the soldiers to appeal for calm when they were shot dead.
Two police patrol vehicles belonging to the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) were set ablaze while their occupants were chased and shot dead. It was gathered that corpses of the slain police officers littered the Iberepo Roundabout even as the soldiers kept on searching everywhere for more policemen.
In all, about ten police officers were believed to have been killed during the mayhem.
