Rights group, Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC) has expressed dismay that despite promises made by the government, Police abuses remain widespread with police officers engaging in the same patterns of abuse that sparked ENDSARS.

Reacting to the commemoration of the one year anniversary of #EndSARS,

RULAAC, in a statement by its Executive Director, Okechukwu Nwanguma, berated government for the situation.

The group explained that the EndSARS protests was expected to have propelled the government to see the need to urgently initiate a comprehensive police reform programme to address the challenges and gaps that allowed the egregious misconducts that triggered the #EndSARS protests.

It recalled that barely one month before the commencement of the #EndSARS protests across the country, President Muhammadu Buhari had signed into law the new Police Act 2020 which provides a framework to commence genuine and far reaching police reform.

“From compromised recruitment process, to poor training (including dilapidated training institutions and poor training curriculum) to inadequate funding and poor welfare conditions which make the police work force prone to corruption and violence.

“The new Police Act has elaborate provisions for due process safeguards and how police officers should exercise their powers,” it noted.

RULAAC also recalled that the IGP and the federal government agreed to the 5-Point Demands presented by the EndSARS protesters and affirmed that the demands were genuine concerns and will be addressed by the Government.

It noted that the IGP, in response to the demands, dissolved the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), reaffirmed the constitutional rights of Nigerians to peaceful assembly and protests; affirmed the sanctity of life of every Nigerian and the role of the Police in protecting their right.

RULAAC, however, expressed disappointment that in spite of the developments, the federal government, at the same time, resorted to vile tactics to suppress the peaceful protests before it eventually deployed naked force to brutally quell the protests by dispatching soldiers to open fire on the assembly of unarmed and peaceful protesters leading to loss of lives and injuries.

The group also noted that Security agencies commenced crackdown on the leaders and presumed sponsors of the EndSARS protests, arrested and detained some of them, seized the travel documents of some others and froze the bank accounts of others.

Citing cases, RULAAC recalled the arrest and continued unlawful detention of Gloria Okorie by Intelligence Response Team (IRT) and the refusal by the police to comply with Court orders to release her, the indictment of the former head of the IGP Intelligence Response Team, DSP Abba Kyari by the FBI for abuse of power and for lending his Police authority and position to aid and abet international fraud and benefitting from the proceeds of crime.

The statement read further: “Police authorities are still issuing Illegal orders banning peaceful protests and assembly – which are constitutionality guaranteed human rights.

“Government has moved from denials to partial admission and attempts to cover up the truth regarding what happened at the Lekki Toll Gate on October 20, 2020. There is no accountability yet for the perpetrators of police abuse. Impunity is still rife and the rule of law is in retreat.

“There have been controversy and disputations over the actual number of persons killed by the military at the Lekki Toll Gate on October 20, 2020. This has played out at the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry where the army, police, Lagos State government representatives, representatives of the EndSARS movement and the Chief Pathologist at the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) gave testimonies and evidence.

“Different figures have been presented by different groups. One of the witnesses who testified at the Lagos State Judicial panel of inquiry said no less than 10 people were killed while several others were injured.

“But even if it was just one person killed, as Dele Giwa of blessed memory wrote, one life lost in cold blood is as gruesome as a million lives lost in a pogrom.”

Meanwhile, RULAAC commended the Lagos State Judicial panel for awarding monetary compensations to some of the victims of police brutality who brought Complaints before it, saying that it was a symbolic way of assuaging the pains and agony of victims and their families and also saying that the state does not tolerate human rights abuse.

The group said Nigerians were waiting to see the Government implement the recommendations of the various State Judicial panels of inquiry with regard to bringing perpetrators to account. “That’s one way the state will send a clear message that it will not condone human rights violations. It is one way to stamp out impunity for police abuses,” it emphasised.

While charging the Nigeria Police to commit itself to the professional standards characteristic of Police in a democracy, it said Nigerians are waiting to see the Government implement the recommendations of the various State Judicial panels of inquiry with regard to bringing perpetrators to account.

It also charged the police to be the protectors of human rights and the rule of law and not predators and law breakers.

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