Adebisi Onanuga
TWO groups, the Crime Victims Foundation of Nigeria (CRIVIFON) and Access to Justice (A2J), have urged the Federal Government to address the issue of training and retraining of police personnel.
They said the government must entrench policing that complies with democratic principles and promotes the rights of persons and ends impunity.
The groups gave the advice in separate statements in Lagos in the wake of nationwide protests against the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) brutalilty.
CRIVIFON Executive Director Mrs Gloria Egbuji said it was not enough to disband SARS by the government without proper training and re-training of the personnel who are to be re-assigned to other police units.
She noted that the Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, has indicated that training would soon commence for the proposed formation or unit that would take over the responsibility of the disbanded SARS.
Nevertheless, Egbuji said the foundation “must involve a well-structured, adequately funded and painstaking training that would, ultimately, cause attitudinal change in the police personnel’’.
“With a benefit of hindsight as trainer of police personnel on human rights for over a decade, inadequate funding has largely affected the training and re-training of police personnel and invariably leaves many of them with poor perception and appreciation of what their statutory roles are.”
Over the years, CRIVIFON has trained about 21,000 police personnel at the Lagos State Police Command alone on human rights and related issues.
The training, which were done in batches with each batch consisting of no fewer than 200 personnel, lasted for three months before graduation.
Egbuji said the foundation had also taken such training on human rights to Anambra, Imo and Akwa Ibom State Commands where officers and men of defunct SARS were singled out and trained.
Admitting that some elements in the disbanded SARS were bad and unprofessional in the duties, the CRIVIFON chief said those who were trained largely made some paradigm shift on the positive side.
With the reform regime about to start in line with the government’s agenda as hinted by President Muhammadu Buhari in his broadcast on the EndSARS protest, she advised the Federal Government to take the issue of funding for the police seriously, to check loopholes that precipitated the unprofessional conducts that have been exhibited over time by the bad elements in the system.
She further advised that the new Police Act, which provides a framework for reform in the system should strictly be followed with a view to starting a genuine and far reaching reform, not only in the attitudinal disposition of police personnel but also in their welfare, reward systems, service conditions in line with international best practices in addition to logistics/equipment, allegiance to the constitution and so on.
The CRIVIFON boss further advised the Inspector-General of Police to put measures in place to ensure that the bad elements in the disbanded SARS do not aid and abet such crimes like kidnapping, armed robbery and so on as a retaliatory measure.
In its statement entitled: ‘SARS dissolution welcome, but not enough: Nigeria needs urgent reform of Police and Security Agencies to convey entrenched culture of Impunity’, Access to Justice (A2J) regretted that the culture of impunity was rife and thriving in the Police force.
The statement signed by the Convener, Joseph Otteh and Project Director, Deji Ajare, warned: “If the Police Force as a whole is not reformed, it is highly unlikely that any new initiatives or tactical units created out of the force will operate differently from the way the defunct SARS did.
“The institutional culture of the Police, as well as other law enforcement and security agencies, promote impunity, lawlessness, lack of accountability and disregard for the rule of law.”
The group blamed past and present governments as “enablers of the culture,’’ adding that they have done nothing on law enforcement and security institutions.
They said the administration is the worst as it allowed atmosphere of impunity in the police force to thrive and flourish.
A2J urged the government to review the dissolved SARS operations, establish an inquiry into how the unit transformed into a notorious scheme of oppression and injustice.
It said: “Every SARS official who was involved in the brutal and widespread assault of citizens and violation of human rights must be brought to justice, including being prosecuted, to guard against similar atrocities in the future.
“If these operatives are not identified and sanctioned now, they may well find their ways into new successor initiatives to SARS and thus forcing Nigerians to relive the past in the form of old wine in new wineskins.”
The group added: “By bringing perpetrators of human rights abuses to Justice, the government has begun the arduous task of tackling the culture of lawlessness and impunity in its key institutions.”
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