The Inspector General of Police, Mr Solomon Arase, has warned that policemen and officers found guilty of human rights violation shall be dismissed from the Nigeria Police Force.

He made the vow in an interview with journalists on Tuesday, at ASAA Pyramid Hotel, during the Human Rights Training of Trainers’ Workshop for Instructors of Nigeria Police Force Training Institutions in the Northern Region in Kaduna.

Represented by Olufemi Adenaike, Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG) Department of Training and Development, the IGP said he will monitor activities of men and officers to ensure strict adherence to respect for human right in the discharge of their duties.

“We will go out there to see what is happening because we cannot be spending much money on their training and allow them to misbehave. We will try them in our orderly room, if they are found guilty, they get punished including dismissal,” he said.

While declaring the workshop open, Arase said the fundamental duties of a police officer include serving the community, safeguarding lives and property, protecting the innocent, keeping the peace and ensuring the rights of all to liberty, equality and justice is respected.

He noted that, the importance of ensuring the recognition of human rights by police officers cannot be overemphasised.

He said the workshop is aimed at providing the necessary platform to reach out to men and officers of the NPF on the need for the promotion and protection of human rights in the discharge of their duties.

“It also offers the opportunity to equip us with the necessary skills, knowledge and attitudes to effectively discharge our duties in accordance with the rule of law and in compliance with human rights best practices,” he said.

The IGP added: “This process dates back to 2010 when the Swiss Government in collaboration with a network of stakeholders like the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Police Service Commission, the NPF, the National Human Rights Commission, the Committee against Torture, other specialized NGOs and some UN Agencies agreed to enter into regular dialogue for the exchange of skills in the field of education and training to promote and protect human rights.

Consequently, seminars and workshops were organised by these agencies for police officers and this led to the development of enhanced human rights teaching syllabi to address gaps in the existing police teaching curriculum in police training institutions particularly in the area dealing with human rights principles.”

Arase said to achieve the targeted purpose, the Human Rights Training Manual was developed as a major resource for the teaching of Human Rights Principles in police training institutions.

“This was followed up by the development of a Trainers’ Guide to aid police instructors in the delivery of the respective modules as contained in the training manual.

“Subsequently, plans were made for the National Roll Out of the NPF Human Rights Training Programme. The roll out process is made up of 5 major steps aimed at institutionalizing the human rights training within the NPF. The approval of the plan by the IGP on the 29th of December, 2014 set the stage for its full implementation by the NPF,” he said.

He added: “The national roll out of this human rights training programme will ensure that the message of protection and promotion of human rights gets to every officer of the NPF regardless of rank.

“This commendable development within the Nigeria Police Force has been made possible due to the immense commitment and support of the various partners of the NPF.

“Furthermore, the NPF is highly appreciative of the support received from its development partners Embassy of Switzerland,German International Cooperation, GIZ, European Union, UNODC, and UNICEF from the inception of this project till date and is particularly grateful to GIZ for making this regional based training of trainers’ workshop for the northern region.”

In her welcome address, Dr Uju Agomoh, Executive Director, PRAWA and Project Coordinator Nigeria Police Human Rights Training Project described the promotion and protection of human right as a cardinal significant for any country that want to ensure compliance to international standard.

In her remarks, Sigrun Andresdottir, Project Manager, GIZ Police Programme Africa said the workshop is part of the long term programme on human right between Nigeria and Germany that is to run for five years.

“It is for us as donors to create strategy to train the Nigerian Police Force for unforeseen future,” she said.

Also in his goodwill message Dr Daniel Caveg, Deputy Head of Mission, Swiss Embassy said the programme is a core pillar of human right activities in Nigeria jointly agreed between Nigeria and Swiss in 2011 to work against violation of human right.

“The programme will equip the Police with knowledge and capacity to train and disseminate human right activities,” he said.

•Photo shows IGP Arase fielding questions from newsmen.

Update news