Reported by: Oahimire Omone Precious | Edited by: Oravbiere Osayomore Promise.
A viral video has ignited nationwide outrage after a human rights activist shared disturbing footage of armed men, alleged to be police officers attached to the Effurun Area Command in Delta State, executing an unarmed suspect in broad daylight. The clip, uploaded by Harrison Gwamnishu, an activist known for spearheading civilian oversight initiatives, shows a man kneeling and pleading for his life moments before gunshots ring out. The footage, which carries a viewer discretion warning, has triggered a fresh and urgent debate on the phenomenon of extrajudicial killings by security operatives in Nigeria, a crisis that has persisted for decades despite repeated assurances of reform.
The video, which has been widely circulated on social media, appears to show uniformed men with firearms confronting an individual who is not carrying any visible weapon. According to the caption accompanying Gwamnishu's post, the armed men are alleged to be police officers from the Effurun Area Command. In the footage, the sound of multiple gunshots can be heard, and the victim is seen collapsing. The identity of the deceased has not yet been officially released, and the exact location and date of the incident are yet to be independently confirmed. “Imagine what happens at night,” Gwamnishu wrote in the post, implying that the brutality visible in broad daylight may be a fraction of the violence that occurs under the cover of darkness.
The Delta State Police Command has not issued any official statement regarding the viral video, despite hours having passed since it began trending. Calls to the Police Public Relations Officer for the Delta State Command, SP Bright Edafe, have gone unanswered, and no press release has been issued to either confirm or deny the involvement of its personnel. This silence has been particularly deafening, as it mirrors the pattern following previous extrajudicial killing allegations, where police authorities often withhold comment until public pressure forces a reaction. Meanwhile, the hashtag #PoliceExecutionInDelta has been trending on X (formerly Twitter), with thousands of Nigerians demanding an immediate investigation.
Harrison Gwamnishu, the activist who shared the video, has previously been involved in documenting police brutality and securing convictions. He was instrumental in the case of Ebri Ubi, a policeman who was sentenced to death by a Delta State High Court in 2024 for the murder of a Nollywood camera person, Chimezie Opara. Ubi was convicted after months of public agitation led by Gwamnishu and other civil society organisations. The current incident has raised fears that such acts of impunity are continuing despite the deterrent effect of the Ubi conviction. Human Rights lawyer Inibehe Effiong has called on the National Human Rights Commission and the Inspector-General of Police, Olatunji Disu, to immediately launch an independent probe.
The implication of this incident for Nigeria’s already fragile security system is profound. The country is currently still grappling with the psychological aftermath of the 2020 #EndSARS protests, where the brutality of the defunct Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) spurred the largest mass protests in a generation. The current administration of President Bola Tinubu has promised police reform, including the establishment of a new training curriculum focused on human rights. Yet, the video from Effurun suggests that despite the reorganisation of tactical units and the disbandment of SARS, the culture of trigger-happy policing has not been eradicated. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) have both previously issued statements condemning extrajudicial killings, but their calls for accountability have often gone unheeded.
The victim is described by sources as a young man in his late twenties. While the police have yet to confirm his identity, family members have reportedly identified him and are demanding the release of his body. Several online reports indicate that the deceased may have been a minor offender suspected of a petty crime, but was not armed or attempting to flee when he was cornered. The video evidence appears to contradict the common police defence that such shootings occur during exchanges of gunfire with armed robbers. In the footage, no exchange of fire can be seen; only a man on his knees and then a hail of bullets.
As of the time of filing this report, the Nigeria Police Force had not issued a formal reaction. The Delta State Police Command’s social media pages have not been updated with any statement regarding the incident. Human rights groups within the state have vowed to picket the Effurun Area Command if a suspect is not paraded within the next 48 hours. The incident has once again exposed the deep distrust between the citizenry and the police force, a relationship that the National Human Rights Commission has previously described as “broken.”
The video has also reignited calls for the full implementation of the Police Reform Bill, which includes provisions for body cameras for all patrol officers. If such technology had been deployed, determining the veracity of the incident would be a straightforward matter of reviewing the recording. Until such reforms are fully adopted and ingrained into the operational culture of the force, however, the sight of a uniformed officer raising a rifle to a kneeling, unarmed citizen will remain a recurring trauma for the Nigerian public. For the family of the man who fell in Effurun, the immediate priority is not reform but justice. Their son is dead. The police are silent. And a nation watches, once again, to see if the long arm of the law will simply shrug.
📩 Stone Reporters News | 🌍 stonereportersnews.com
✉️ info@stonereportersnews.com | 📘 Facebook: Stone Reporters News | 🐦 X (Twitter): @StoneReportNew | 📸 Instagram: @stonereportersnews
Add comment
Comments