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One of the scenes of the Offa robbery
The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has strongly condemned the mass killings of police operatives and civilians which characterised last weekend’s armed robbery operation in Offa, Kwara State. The rights group demanded that the Presidency and the National Assembly members should declare a national policing state of emergency until the serious challenges inhibiting effective and efficient policing practices in Nigeria are realistically addressed. Besides, the group criticised the “business-as-usual” reaction of the political class and the hierarchy of the nation’s police to this dastardly crime against humanity and called on the Nigerian state to view the incident as signposting that police operatives are now endangered species due to lack of proactive leadership and material resources to institutionalize effective policing mechanism. HURIWA said 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. The rights group therefore expressed consternation that governments at every level 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 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 has 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.
It stated that 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 group 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, 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.
The group therefore urged President Buhari to dismiss the IGP and hire a much more competent and professionally efficient officer to reorder 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 law and enforced to bring about greater efficiency and professionalism.
The rights group also urged the National Assembly and the Presidency to synergise 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 also wants the Nigerian police service commission (PSC) reorganised and adequately governed and funded to much more effectively provide oversight supervisions of the national and state polices.
“A situation whereby armed hoodlums will strike at a police station and kill over one dozen police operatives as happened in Offa should not be tolerated anymore,” the group said.
It recalled that the number of persons that lost their lives to the bank robbery in Offa, Offa Local Government Area of Kwara State, last weekend may have risen to 30 as reported by eye witnesses.
HURIWA said this was a sharp increase in the 12, comprising six policemen and six civilians, 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.
