EndSARSMemorial: PLAC Charges Buhari on New Police Act as Nigerians Insist their Demands Not Yet Met

Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC), a civic group, wants President Muhammadu Buhari to take ‘’necessary steps’’ to implement provisions of the new Police legislation in the country.

The new Police Act 2020 aims for an efficient and effective police service driven by principles of transparency and accountability, protection of human rights and partnership with other security agencies.

PLAC and some concerned Nigerians are insisting that nothing has really changed as the injustice that was the main reason for the EndSARS protest still existed in the society.

‘’It is pertinent that moving forward, the Nigerian government takes necessary steps to implement the provisions of this new Act, with a view to providing effective and responsible policing for its citizens’’, PLAC says.

Continuing, the group said on its website that last October, Nigeria’s security services brutally put down nationwide protests against police brutality, popularly known as EndSARS. The protest highlighted widespread abuse of human rights by the Nigeria Police and security services.

According to PLAC, the Nigeria Police has not changed its tactics and its mode of operation and the five-to-five agenda the protesters pushed for was yet to be realised.

On his part, Ayo Ologun, a journalist, is noting that Nigerians should remember that End SARS was a metaphor for a myriad of problems that citizens, especially the youths, have been experiencing. He explained that the protest took on the narrative of the youths deciding to reorganize, bring themselves together in order to change the status quo.

While Ologun admitted that several issues led to the protest which came with a lot of lessons and regrets which included destruction, vandalisation, he adds, “we have gathered one year after to review the issues and to critically look at other issues that led to the protests.

“The five on five demands. How much of them have been met? What have been the effects of the panels that were set up across the states? How have people been compensated because many people lost properties and businesses during the protest and what has the government done to alleviate their sufferings? Also, to draw lessons and to forge ahead as a nation.”

Convener of Dialogue365, Waheed Saka, is of the opinion that there is the need for a sincere discussion around EndSARS from the point of view of the citizens, government, and civil society adding that a lot of lives were lost due to the protest.

“Some businesses went under and government also lost due to the protest. Most importantly, what have been the lessons? The bottom line is, we need to look at the critical areas to improve our street engagements. First, to list the trust of the people again. Secondly, from the point of government, lessons have not been learnt and that can be observed in the show of force on the streets of Lagos and Osogbo today”, he said.

While maintaining that it was not necessary, he explained that society being policed by all the power of the military is living on a keg of gunpowder, and advised the government to show that it was doing something on the demands of the masses and also that victims should be adequately compensated.

He is also calling for a synergy between the people and security agencies especially the police in order to find a common ground to tackle police brutality, extortion in a way that will reflect the agenda of End SARS.

For citizen Lamina Kamiludeen Omotoyosi, there have been some changes but the targets have not been achieved in the country, adding that there was the need for a discussion to find a lasting solution to the issues raised during the protest.

Continuing from there, PLAC said citizens came out in hundreds of thousands unto the streets of major cities in the country to protest human rights abuse by the police and other security personnel, adding, ‘’the October 2020 memorial comes with bitter tales of high handed suppression of the protest.

‘’Civic groups recount reports of soldiers shooting protesters at the epicentre of the protest at Lekki tollgate in Lagos. According to some accounts, protesters were shot, some killed and bodies removed from the scene.

‘’Although the Nigerian security agencies, including the police have denied these reports of shootings and killings, witnesses testifying at the EndSARS investigation panels set up by many states in the country have given evidence to support their allegations.

‘’In the EndSARS memorial protest held on Wednesday, October 20, scenes of forceful attempts to end the protest are evident. The police had warned protesters to demonstrate ‘virtually’ and ‘indoors’. Police personnel were deployed to protest venues to quell demonstrations.

‘’The protesters had designated 8am to 10am protest time in order to manage fears of high-handed security reprisals. In a particular incident at the Lekki tollgate in Lagos, television footages show a young man beaten and bloodied by the police and resisting arrest and forceful takeaway into a police van.

‘’The Nigeria Police has established notoriety for brutality and unaccountability over human rights issues. Several years of advocacy by Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and citizens led to the passage of a new Police Act in 2020.

‘’PLAC drove final efforts that led to the National Assembly passing the Police Bill  and the President assenting to it in September 2020.  More than a year after this, a crisis of human rights violations and accountability failures with the Nigeria Police, remain.’’

In one of its publications, PLAC highlights some provisions of the new Police Act enacted in September 2020. Barely a month after Nigeria got a new Police law, the country witnessed the EndSARS protest calling for an end to police brutality and police reforms.

One year later, as citizens relive the abrupt end to the protest of October 2020, observers have pointed out that little or nothing has been done in terms of reform of  the Nigeria Police.

Behold, PLAC’s infographics on the new Police Act 2020: In one of its publications,

 

 

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