President Muhammadu Buhari should sack the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, as a first step to rebuild public confidence in the Nigerian security architecture.
This charge was made by Fatherland, a group of Nigerian professionals at home and abroad with its head office in London.
In a statement issued on Thursday by its president, Mr. Dele Ogun, Fatherland said in addition, there should be a comprehensive, citizen-led reform of policing arrangements in the country to give the people proper protection from criminals, in or out of uniform.
“The IG should have resigned. There is a stream of innocent blood flowing across the land under his feet. The proper thing is for him to quit. If he fails, he should be sacked,” the group said.
The group applauded protesting youths for their exceptional display of bravery and resilience in the on-going struggle against police brutality.
The group said by the protest the youths had made it clear that they would not tolerate being treated less than citizens, and indeed less than humans, by their own government.
“It is in this same spirit of defending their fundamental rights to human dignity that they have joined others across the world as part of the worldwide Black Lives Matters movement,” the group added.
Fatherland which recently held an inter-continental conference on the future of Nigeria said it was concerned about reports that government had been making public announcements of the disbandment of SARS units within the Nigerian Police Force only to allow them to resurface each time.
Fatherland said it was troubled by images of men of the Nigeria Police Force shooting, with live ammunition, and in some cases killing, unarmed protesters calling for an end to SARS.
There are reports of hundreds missing, usually from police custody.
Fatherland condemned the violent attacks on protesters by the men of the Nigeria Police Force, and their hired thugs, intended to deprive citizens of their right to hold peaceful protests.
Fatherland said it believed that the events of the last week had shown that the relationship of trust and confidence that needed to exist between citizens, communities and security agencies had completely broken down.
“This is especially poignant and troubling, against the backdrop of President Buhari’s Independence Day address, in which he called for the citizenry to support government by providing the necessary community level intelligence.”
Fatherland said Buhari’s 60th anniversary celebratory speech stated amongst other things that as a government, he remained committed to Nigeria’s constitutional oath of securing the lives and properties of the citizenry calling on the citizenry to also support the government by providing the necessary community level intelligence in addressing the challenges.
Fatherland regretted that two days later, on 3rd of October 2020, officers of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) murdered a 20 year old singer, Daniel Chibuike Ikeaguchi, popularly known as Sleek adding that in another outrage, Ifeoma Abugu, a 20 year old lady, who had just graduated and was performing her mandatory National Youth Service, was arrested in place of her fiance at his residence in Lokogoma, Abuja.
Ifeoma was sexually assaulted and later died in SARS custody.
The group recalled that the EndSARS protests commenced after the video of the musician’s corpse, lying on the road, in Elelenwo, in Rivers State, and a subsequent video of his father crying and seeking justice, went viral.
“The latest round of protests were sparked by a video recording of SARS officers dragging two young men out of a hotel in Lagos and shooting one of them. The call to protest has been answered by Nigerian youths in several states of the federation and echoed by young Nigerians abroad and members of the international community, including many celebrities.”
