In yet another display of gross indiscipline and lack of professionalism, some personnel of the Imo State command of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) and the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) werereportedly involved in an affray over a minor dissension last week. And by the time the dust settled, an NSCDC personnel said to be the driver of the state Commandant had been killed, some people had been seriously wounded, while the commandant of the NSCDC had been allegedly manhandled. The report of the incident indicates that it was down to ego trip and unhealthy rivalry, both of which border on indiscipline, an anathema in any structured and disciplined service, whether it is fully or partly regimented.

According to media reports, the attack was triggered by an earlier mild argument between personnel in the convoy of the NSCDC commandant and a plain-clothes police officer who blocked the road the convoy was to pass through. However, apparently dissatisfied with how the argument was resolved at the control point, the police officer then trailed the convoy to the NSCDC command office where he allegedly drew his pistol to launch an attack but was overpowered, disarmed and detained. The incident happened on a Sunday. Apparently, the following Monday evening attack and invasion of the NSCDC command by police personnel was meant to rescue their colleague, as well as launch a reprisal on the NSCDC personnel for their effrontery in detaining an alleged violent police officer.

This embarrassing and fatal incident happened, just like those before it, as if the country is one huge, lawless and ungoverned space where even the law enforcement agencies have to resort to self-help to resolve disagreements. It is bad enough that some non-state actors sometimes make recourse to anarchy to seek redress, but it is worse and unacceptable that law enforcement agents trained, kitted and armed by the state are fast developing a penchant for settling scores through utterly lawless methods. Specifically, it is a shameful development that personnel of federal agencies with a constitutional responsibility to protect the citizens will themselves be involved in violence resulting in loss of life.

We condemn the ugly development in strong terms. If these agencies cannot work together harmoniously, how will they not sabotage efforts at reining in crimes, therebyexposing the citizenry to danger? It has, therefore, become imperative that a mechanism is evolved to nip inter-agency dispute in the bud and stop the situation from degenerating further, with potentially disastrous consequences for the country. For starters, if there is no specific sanction grid for the kind of inter-agency rivalry that culminated in the subversion of national interest like the one at issue, it should be developed. Or the extant one that appears ineffective should be tweaked to make it more efficacious by categorizing every act of gross indiscipline by any security agency as a serious crime against the state. The Nigerian state is currently beset with a myriad of daunting security challenges. Why should the security agencies whose responsibility it is to contain these challenges, and who have been literally ineffective, further compound the situation by engaging in security breaches against one another?

This is a grave and recurring matter that must be decisively addressed at the highest political level. What Nigerians need is for the agencies to effectively carry out their constitutional responsibilities and help to re-establish security of life and properties in the land, not to stage a show of superiority over one another. And if they must engage in a show of supremacy, they should do that to the violent non-state actors who by their nearly unchecked reckless atrocities are increasinglyquestioning the state’s claim to a monopoly of violence.

Meanwhile, we urge the highest hierarchies of the two agencies involved in the current show of shame to launch a painstaking inquiry into the incident and ensure that the culprits are brought to book without recourse to esprit de corps. Also,members of the public must not be kept in the dark regarding how this matter is disposed of and justice served. For instance, the plain-clothes police officer should be interrogated on his motive for trailing the convoy of the NSCDC commandant to the agency’s headquarters. Assuming but notconceding that he was offendedduring the altercation he and his colleagues had with the NSCDC personnel at the police checkpoint, he should have lodged a complaint at the appropriate quarters. Going to their office ostensibly to avenge him was an unabashedand dangerous display of indiscipline and lawlessness, especially in a state that is reputed for incessant attacks on public officials and facilities by hoodlums.