By Linus Akomolafe
A human right group, Take It Back movement, have revealed that over 2, 000 petitions have been received at the EndSars panel for police brutality in Nigeria.
The group lamented that since the EndSars protest held on October 20, 2020 over police brutality and disbandment of the Special Anti Robbery Squad unit (SARS), there have been rising cases of illegal arrest and torture of Nigerians.
They revealed that one Eji Omolola was tortured and allegedly murdered on May 7 by some police officers in Ikorodu while Monsurat Ojuade was shot dead at her residence by an officer, Samuel Philips.
The group are calling for complete overhauling of the force.They also noted that the EndSars panel, within the last one year has proven to be slow, alleging that accused officers haven’t faced the consequences of their actions.
In a statement made available to the press, they said: “The Endsars panel has been slow, victims are getting inadequate or no compensation and officers accused of carrying out abuses are yet to be punished. In fact some officers invited refused to show up on the excuses of sickness, the same people that were not sick when they chose to kill and harass innocent people. The petitions received by the panel in Lagos alone as at June was over 450 cases while for the entire Nation is over 2000 petitions. Their must be justice.”
The Police Service Commission ( PSC) was also accused of unprofessional conducts in handling erring police officers.
The statement reads: “Even before now, the Police Service commission (PSC) who oversees disciplinary matters have always taken the issue of police misconduct with levity. They tell you we are still verifying, evaluating, checking, and analyzing reports sent to them to punish erring police officers; in most cases, the issues are swept under the carpet. How can we end brutality when we don’t take punishing erring officers out of the force.”
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