CASER commends outcome of Presidential Panel on SARS reform

CASER commends outcome of Presidential Panel on SARS reform

[html]Citizens Advocacy for Social & Economic Rights (CASER), has commended the outcome and recommendation of the Presidential Panel on the Reform of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).
   
   
   
       
       
           
               
                   

Citizens Advocacy for Social & Economic Rights (CASER), has commended the outcome and recommendation of the Presidential Panel on the Reform of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS).

               
           
               
                   

The Executive Director of CASER, Mr Frank Tietie said this in a statement made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday in Abuja .

               
           
               
                   

He said that the recommendations of the panel would better the lives of Nigerians to greater length.

               
           
               
                   

Tietie said that the recommendation of the panel would go a long way in addressing the horrendous human rights violations of the past by the police and would enhance the establishment of a new law enforcement paradigm.

               
           
               
                   

He added that the recommendation would also give priority to the protection of peoples’ fundamental human rights above everything else.

               
           
               
                   

“CASER commends the members of the panel led by the Executive Secretary of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Mr Tony Ojukwu for their forthrightness in holding impartial, independent and dispassionate views

               
           
               
                   

“On the various cases they reviewed and in making those recommendations to the president clearly in the national interest, the recommendations of the panel particularly with regards to the establishment of state and local government police are most commendable.

               
           
               
                   

“This is considering the growing insecurity, increasing violations of the right to life and the need for closer and more direct accountability of the police to the people and communities that they protect,’’ he stressed.

               
           
               
                   

According to Tietie, the contradiction of Section 215 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria where a governor’s directives to a state commissioner of police is being subjected to clearance from the Inspector General of Police, is not a good one.

               
           
               
                   

He said that such old practice made the governors practically impotent in discharging their political responsibility in the protection of the people of a state.

               
           
               
                   

He said that the recommendation of state and local government police would guaranty adequate security for the people.

               
           
               
                   

He commended President Muhammadu Buhari’s disposition in giving a three month period to ensure that the NHRC Solicitor-General, the Police and other relevant government agencies worked to ensure the implementation of the recommendations of the panel.

               
           
               
                   

According to Tietie, such an idea is highly welcomed and responsive on the part of the president in seeing to crucial issue that will increase his goodwill among Nigerians irrespective of their political, religious or ethnic divides.

               
           
               
                   

He said that CASER would work with the NHRC to galvanize citizens’ support for the actualisation of the recommendations of the panel.

               
           
               
                   

He also called on other CSOs/NGOs to seize the golden opportunity offered by the president to ensure that proper police reforms were carried out by the government to guarantee security and protection of the human rights of Nigerians.

               
           
               
                   

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He urged NHRC to mobilise a coalition of CSOs/NGOs to educate the citizenry on the benefits of implementing the panel’s recommendation on State Police, adding that such a CSO coalition must work with the National Assembly and states Houses of Assembly.

               
           
               
                   

“The quality of police service of any country is the most significant barometer in measuring the quality of socioeconomic life of a people who are governed by law.

               
           
               
                   

“We cannot continue to afford a dysfunctional police system that fails the people’s expectations of a society that guarantees peace, security and protection of basic human rights,’’ he said.