Fatal Checkpoint Shooting: Court Upholds Dismissal of Policeman

By Modupe Gbadeyanka

The dismissal of a police corporal, Mr Ishmael Iwatt, from the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), has been upheld by the National Industrial Court.

Mr Iwatt approached the court to challenge his dismissal from the service over an alleged reckless use of his weapon at a checkpoint, which led to the death of a woman.

He argued that his dismissal was based on the murder allegation and that his subsequent discharge and acquittal by the High Court entitled him to return to the police.

According to the evidence before the court, Mr Iwatt was armed with a sub-machine gun loaded with eight rounds of ammunition at a stop-and-search point. Five rounds were fired at a Volkswagen vehicle, resulting in the death of a woman inside the vehicle.

He had maintained during the police orderly room proceedings that the shooting was accidental, noting that a red vehicle approached the checkpoint at high speed and that, while attempting to avoid being hit, he jumped and struck his leg against a tyre being used as a barrier. He claimed that as he fell, the rifle dropped from his hand and discharged.

But Justice Nelson Ogbuanya of the Port Harcourt Division of the NIC, sitting in Owerri, rejected the argument, drawing a distinction between criminal responsibility and employment or disciplinary responsibility.

The judge found the explanation difficult to reconcile with the circumstances of the incident and the disciplinary charge against the officer, noting that Mr Iwatt did not disprove the allegation that his rifle was loaded with eight rounds and that five rounds had been fired.

Justice Ogbuanya, thereafter, dismissed the suit seeking the police corporal’s reinstatement, stressing that the central issue before the court was not whether Mr Iwatt was criminally liable for murder, but whether his conduct during the incident rendered him unsuitable to continue serving as a police officer entrusted with a firearm.

The judge ruled that the subsequent criminal acquittal did not resolve the separate employment question of whether Iwatt remained fit and capable of responsibly handling a firearm in the course of police duties.

Justice Ogbuanya further held that the defence of “accidental discharge” could not, in the circumstances, shield an officer whose conduct demonstrated recklessness in the handling of a service weapon. He also observed that deaths resulting from alleged accidental discharges by police officers during stop-and-search operations remained a recurring concern.