A prominent pro-democracy and non-governmental organization, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, on Monday called on the Presidency to declare a state of emergency on the Nigeria Police Force.
HURIWA gave the call while condemning the mass killings of police operatives and civilians during an armed robbery operation in Offa, Kwara State, over the weekend.
The organisation said declaring state of emergency on the Force would bring an end to the problems ” inhibiting effective and efficient policing practices in Nigeria.”
According to a statement signed by its national coordinator, Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, and national media affairs director, Miss Zainab Yusuf, HURIWA said, “The Presidency and the National Assembly should declare a national policing state of emergency so the serious challenges inhibiting effective and efficient policing practices in Nigeria are realistically addressed.”
“The Rights group has criticized the “business-as-usual reaction of the political class and the hierarchy of the nation’s police to this dastardly crime against humanity and has called on the Nigerian state to view the incident as signposting the fact that police operatives are now endangered species due to lack of proactive leadership and material resources to institutionalize effective policing mechanism.
“This is not the first time such an audacious attacks have been successfully launched against the operatives and institution of the Nigeria Police force and reminded Nigerians that in most parts of North East of Nigeria the police operations were severely limited and made impossible for many years by the robust attacks on police formations coordinated and executed by armed boko haram terrorists.”
It expressed consternation that governments at every levels have treated the fundamental issues afflicting the Nigeria Police with the “casual approach that is unworkable and cosmetic.”
HURIWA stated that from investigation it carried out, it was “discovered that several layers of the elite and political class benefit a lot from the current dysfunctional state of the Nigeria Police force” even as it “tasked President Muhammadu Buhari to end the organised crime of undermining the efficiency of the nation’s policing institution which has been there long before he came into office in 2015.”
The human right body said the “President, the leadership of the National Assembly and the hierarchy of the police service commission (PSC) have failed to appreciate the significant empirical reality of the collapsed nature of the nation’s policing institution even as the Rights group has carpeted these strata of political leaders for adopting non-professional measures to stem the tides of failed policing standards in Nigeria.”
Arguing that the solution to the operational and personnel challenges confronting the police in Nigeria “goes beyond the current shadow chasing by the Inspector General of police Alhaji Ibrahim Idris Kpodum in always making emergency deployment of more men and officers to scenes of deadly criminal attacks but will demand surgical procedures to cut off the rotten heads that run the Nigerian Police force, HURIWA urged President Buhari to dismiss the current Inspector General of police Alhaji Ibrahim Idris Kpodum, hire a much more competent and professionally efficient police Inspector General to reorganize the crime fighting strategy of the nation’s police at the National level just as other far reaching constitutional reviews of the status of the policing policy in the Country already worked out should be passed into laws and enforced to bring about greater efficiency and professionalism.
The Rights group also urged the National Assembly and the Presidency to synergize and okay the passage of the amended version of the 1999 constitution with provisions for the creation of state police so that state governments can set up effective policing institutions with well-structured legal frameworks to prevent political interferences in the operation and staffing of both the National and state police.
HURIWA said that the number of persons that lost their lives to the bank robbery in Offa, Offa Local Government Area of Kwara State, on last weekend may have risen to 30 as reported by eye witnesses.
“This was a sharp increase in the 12, comprising six policemen and six civilians, that was reported on Friday just as Several eyewitnesses who spoke with the media said body count at the scene of the incident indicated that those who lost their lives were about 30,” he said.
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