By Mercy IyeneAbasi Etim
When I saw that footage of the Delta Police officer shooting a man who was already tied up, restrained, and literally begging for his life, I had to do a double-take. I was like, are we in America?!
Seriously, it felt like watching a clip from across the Atlantic. It’s usually only in America that you see people shooting at defenseless folks in broad daylight with that level of “boldness.”
That kind of cold audacity is something you’d expect from ICE, or officers like Derek Chauvin, Kim Potter, or Wayne Isaacs of the “saner clime” world, not from Nigerian officers meant to protect their own community.
The victim, 28-year-old Mene Ogidi, was on the ground in Effurun with his hands tied. He was even offering to lead them to the person who supposedly misled him, but he was executed at close range instead.
At least “saner clime” folks often insist they were aggravated or that the situation had become combative, volatile, or that they “feared for their life.” But here, the situation was completely under control. Three officers looked on in silence as their colleague cocked his gun not once to shoot and murder Mene.
Now we hear the police claiming they found a pistol on him but thank God for the inventors of camera phones and Obasanjo’s internet.
How do you justify killing someone who is already incapacitated and pleading for mercy? And in full public glare! Imagine what an officer like this is capable of in secret or under the cover of night.
This is exactly why the conversation around police reform can’t just be a hashtag or an opportunity for anarchists to burn the country.
There has to be a total overhaul. We need state police systems, body cams, independent oversight that actually has teeth, and a psychological evaluation system that weeds out these predators before they ever get a badge.
Yes, the Federal Government just unveiled the 2025 Police Regulations, which supposedly introduce strict rules on the use of force, but what good are regulations if “bad eggs” still act with total impunity?
The scary reality is that SARS or whatever name they call themselves nowadays is still just as potent and toxic as it was back in the day.
We haven’t moved past the era of people like James Nwafor (Awkuzu James), a man who became notorious for atrocities at the Awkuzu SARS “death center” while serving as the OC SARS under the leadership of his then-boss, Peter Obi in Anambra State.
We honestly can’t stay silent. We need to keep documenting, keep protesting, and keep pushing for a system where “to serve and protect” and “police is your friend” aren’t just dark jokes.
I don’t know what Mene Ogidi did, but he deserved his day in court, not to be murdered. This shouldn’t just end with an arrest; we must start to see real, structural reforms in the Nigeria Police Force.