Civil rights advocacy group, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), has challenged President Muhammadu Buhari to address the emerging violence in parts of Lagos, Ogun and other states.

This, it said, is with a view to activating effective and efficient crime-fighting mechanisms, including the setting up of a joint military, para-military taskforces to be coordinated by the office of the Chief of Defence Staff to immediately stamp out the armed marauders who have made living very intolerably harsh in those states under total lockdown as result of COVID19.

HURIWA said it is unfortunate that under the current Inspector General of Police, hundreds of armed Fulani herdsmen and kidnappers have been reportedly arrested and paraded before the media and soon after the nation continues to witness armed kidnappings by armed Fulani herdsmen and other armed groups.

It carpeted the Police Chief for not accounting to the people of Nigeria on the exact status and whereabouts of these deadly mass killers that his office frequently paraded without any meaningful or constructive prosecution both by him and the Federal Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Alhaji Abubakar Malami (SAN).

"It is a widely reported facts with wide ranging evidence and eye witnesses that just barely a week into the lockdown order declared in Ogun, Lagos and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, on March 29 by the President, it has become apparent that the Nigerian Police Force and even the Department of States Services (DSS) are not in any way prepared or adequately deployed to maintain law and order and in fact the primary ingredient of maintenance of law and order in the 21st century has to do with the constitutionally mandated and obligated duty of providing security to life and property of the citizens.

“We then ask why the President Buhari-led administration would declare a total lockdown for law abiding Nigerians and never envisaged the possibility and inevitability of the grave risks posed to the lives of Nigerians by armed robbers and other armed marauders, including armed Fulani herdsmen, who are now terrorizing Mbaise in Imo State, parts of Delta and Plateau states?

“Why subject Nigerians observing the curfew to the harsh realities of having to stay away from work but to continuously being attacked viciously by all sorts of armed hoodlums? We have received dozens of save our souls calls from distressed Nigerians under violent robbery attacks in many areas of Lagos state.”

HURIWA said it was worried that some victims of the robberies were actually sent a notice by the armed hoodlums and wondered why the armed security forces trained and equipped to combat violent crimes are usually nowhere to be found when these violent crimes are going on even to the ridiculous extent that the robbers robbed Nigerians with POS and could spend several hours without the arrival of the armed police.

The rights group said the best panacea is for the President to have constituted or to now constitute a special joint security task forces under the command and control of the nation's Chief of Defense Staff to coordinate a wide and effective fight against these armed marauders terrorizing Nigerians who are observing the COVID-19 lockdown.”

The rights group also condemned what it called “the reckless redeployment” of the Rivers State Police Commissioner, Mustspha Dandaura, by the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, after a week that the Aviation Minister and cousin of the President, Senator Hadi Sirika, carpeted the police chief for agreeing to enforce a state-wide curfew in Rivers State ordered by Governor Nyesom Wike. The arrest culminated in the arrest, detention and prosecution in the State's High Court of two pilots of Caverton Helicopters by the Rivers State Government for flouting the executive order issued lawfully by Governor Nyesom Wike which had imposed restrictions of movements into the State.

In a statement yesterday, HURIWA tasked the IGP to speak on another allegation that the then Rivers State Police Commissioner reputed as one of the best crime fighting cops in the country was redeployed because he allegedly refused to capitulate to the political pressures from powerful politicians with connections to the powers that be in the nation's capital to release one Mr. Adamu Musa an alleged member of a gang.

HURIWA lamented that the cocktail of allegations against the IGP on his inexplicable removal of the Rivers State's Commissioner of Police who was doing so well and who has successfully cracked many complex crimes, including the arrest of the dreaded serial killer of dozens of women, Mr. Gracious David West, and has successfully destroyed several feared armed kidnapping gangsters has come at a time that the Police Inspector has failed to prosecute the hundreds of kidnappers the police parades in the media for many months.

“The allegation that the former River State police crime fighting chief, Dandaura, was sacrificed on the altar of prebendalism and ethnic politics and for resisting pressure to release a suspected murderer is a very serious charge that must be looked at holistically and addressed transparently because it is unnatural that a Commissioner of Police who is performing optimally well to combat violent crimes and criminality can just be uprooted from his beat and relegated to the office task of the provost of Police. What will he be doing there as provost of police? Will he go after criminals in police uniform or what and why is this posting happening at this time of health emergency that all hands need to be on deck?

“Is the IGP creating the impression that Commissioners of Police should not implement lawful orders made by state governors for the maintenance of law and order in their states of posting? This removal, to put it mildly, is a huge political miscalculation that has thrown up the issue of how so well committed is the federal police ready to work for the public good of the 36 states of the Federation independent of party politics of ABUJA or the cabinet of President Buhari.

HURIWA expressed worry that the Nigerian Police Force has become too politically diluted and has lost their professional soul to combat armed marauders.

“The President must think out of the box and come up with a quick win mechanism to nip in the bud these cases of armed violent attacks against the Nigerian citizens. The President needs to set up special taskforce composed of all armed security forces to comb the streets and eradicate these armed marauders terrorizing Nigerians who are observing the compulsory lockdown. Alternatively, the Lagos and Ogun State governments should set up armed vigilantes to check these acts of violent criminality.”

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