The Crime Victims Foundation of Nigeria (CRIVIFON) Lagos, has called on the Federal Government to urgently address the issue of training and retraining of police personnel essentially on policing in accordance with democratic principles that promote the rights of persons.
In a press statement on Tuesday in connection with the massive protests by concerned Nigerians across some cities in the country against brutality by men of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), the Executive Director of CRIVIFON, Mrs. Gloria Egbuji; said it was not enough to disband SARS as announced by the government without proper training and re-training of the personnel who are to be re-assigned to other units of the police.
Even though the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu has given indication that training would soon commence for the proposed formation or unit that would take over the responsibility of disbanded SARS, the Foundation would want a well structured, adequately funded and painstaking training that would ultimately cause attitudinal change in the police personnel.
With a benefit of hindsight as trainer of police personnel on human rights for over a decade now, the CRIVIFON boss pointed out that inadequate funding has largely affected the training and re-training of police personnel and invariably leaves many of them with poor perception and appreciation of what their statutory roles are.
Over the years, CRIVIFON under the leadership of Mrs. Gloria Egbuji had trained about 21,000 police personnel at the Lagos State Police Command alone on human rights and related issues. The trainings which were done in batches with each batch consisting of no fewer than 200 personnel lasted for three months before graduation.
Similarly, the Foundation had taken such training on human rights to Anambra, Imo and Akwa Ibom State Commands where officers and men of SARS were singled out and trained.
While admitting that some elements in the disbanded SARS were actually bad and unprofessional in the duties, the CRIVIFON chieftain posited that those who were trained largely made some paradigm shift on the positive side attitudinally speaking.
With the reform regime about to kick start in line with government’s agenda as hinted by President Muhammadu Buhari in his nation wide broadcast on the “End SARS” protest, Egbuji’s Foundation has asked the Federal Government to take the issue of funding for the police seriously with a view to checking loopholes that precipitated the unprofessional conducts that have been exhibited over time by the bad elements in the system.
She further advised that the new Police Act which provides a framework for reform in the system should strictly be followed with a view to starting a genuine and far reaching reform not only in the attitudinal disposition of police personnel but also in their welfare, reward systems, service conditions in line with international best practices in addition to logistics/equipment, allegiance to the constitution and so on.
As some security experts have warned or predicted of possible upsurge in violent crimes due to the disbanding of SARS, the CRIVIFON boss has called the Inspector General of Police to urgently put measures to ensure that the bad elements in the disbanded SARS do not aid and abet such crimes like kidnapping, armed robbery and so on as a retaliatory measure against the Nigerian state.
Meanwhile, the Executive Director has joined other well meaning Nigerians to call for an end to protests across the country since the Federal Government has already taken positive steps towards bringing sanity in the polity.
https://any.peopleandpowermag.com/disbanding-of-sars-crivifon-boss-calls-for-urgent-re-training-of-police-personnel-nationwide/
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