The continued stay of CP Fatai Jimoh as the Lagos State Commissioner of Police is an affront to justice, democracy, and the constitutional rights of Nigerians.
His years of service have been consistently marked by brutality, intolerance for dissent, and a disturbing pattern of aligning with political office holders and wealthy interests to suppress the poor and working class.
Across different postings, Fatai Jimoh has built a reputation not as a protector of lives and property, but as an enforcer deployed against citizens expressing legitimate grievances. In Lagos, this pattern has become more pronounced. Peaceful protesters—victims of forceful eviction, land grabbing, hunger, and bad governance—have been met with excessive force, arbitrary arrests, teargas, and in some cases live ammunition. This is not policing; it is repression.
Rather than acting as a neutral law enforcement officer, CP Jimoh has repeatedly positioned the police under his command as a private security outfit for the political elite and property speculators, while poor communities are treated as enemies of the state. Such conduct violates the spirit of the Nigerian Constitution and international human rights standards to which Nigeria is a signatory.
Lagos cannot continue under a police commissioner whose record inspires fear instead of public trust. CP Fatai Jimoh should not remain in office for one more day. His immediate removal is necessary, and his actions must be independently investigated with a view to prosecution for abuses committed under his command.
No society can claim to be democratic while rewarding brutality and impunity. Justice demands accountability.
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