At least 148 civilians have been killed by law enforcement agents over the last two years across Nigeria, media reports’ data analyzed by Daily Trust on Sunday has revealed.
According to the data, the killings, which may likely be higher, were perpetrated in different locations by 92 policemen, 35 soldiers, and five other law enforcement agents from paramilitary forces like customs and immigration.
Based on the statistics mined by this newspaper, which relied primarily on news accounts, the number of civilians killed by the police surged in 2022 compared to 2021 and 2020.
According to the data, 50 people were killed within nine months in 2022, while 43 and 49 were killed in 2021 and 2020 respectively.
Based on the record, the incidents happened in 33 states, where Lagos led the chart with 22; Osun 17; Delta 14; Edo 14; Rivers 11; Imo 10, while the rest shared the remaining 59.
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The data revealed that the majority of the people killed were male and that the incidents were more frequent in cities.
In most of these incidents, as revealed by the records, the security operatives used lethal force to kill their victims over offenses that ordinarily attract no fine when taken to a court of law.
Also, the killings, based on news reports, were done by security operatives who were mostly drunk, through shooting and beating.
